2.
Provenance
–1973, Elie Borowski (Basel, Switzerland); 1973, acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum by exchange; in a letter dated March 30, 1977, Borowski recorded that the krater was in his possession in 1947, but this has not been verified.
Shape and Ornament
Rim slightly convex on top with a vertical overhang; a flat handle plate extending beyond the rim at each side supported by two columns; ovoid body; ogee foot. Top of rim black. On neck: A, black dotted chain of pendant lotus buds between two black lines in a reserved panel; B, black. Body black. Zone of black rays above the foot. Outside foot black except for bottom. Resting surface and underside of foot reserved. Interior black.
Subject
A. Dancing girl facing right, holding krotala (clappers) in both hands. She is nude and wears a wreath around her head. She has short hair and bends her head and body forward.
B. Diskobolos (diskos thrower) with chest in frontal view moves to the right with left foot forward. He holds a diskos in his left hand and raises it to be level with his head. He looks down, with knees bent. As his right hand moves back, he draws his right foot back off the ground and places his weight on his left. The thrower is nude except for a wreath around his head. The diskos is decorated with an owl in silhouette.
Attribution and Date
Attributed to Myson by D. von Bothmer. Circa 490–480 B.C.
Dimensions and Condition
Height 35 cm; diam. of rim 30 cm (outside); diam. of rim 24 cm (inside); width with handles 34.5 cm; diam. of body 29 cm; diam. of foot 16 cm. Capacity to rim 8.706 liters. Reconstructed from several large fragments with small missing pieces restored in plaster and painted. Notable among them is a portion of the rays above the foot on side A. Black thin around figures. Outside rim abraded in places.
Technical Features
Preliminary sketch. Relief contour. Accessory color. Red: outside rim, wreaths. Owl rendered in silhouette. Tiny clay fragments on top of rim and on side B, around the feet of the athlete, may indicate points of contact with clay supports or other vases within the kiln.
Bibliography
Abbreviation: BAPDBeazley Archive Pottery Database. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk 5008; J. Frel, Recent Acquisitions: Ancient Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum Malibu, California, exh. cat. (Pullman, Wash., 1974), no. 38; Abbreviation: Peschel, HetäreI. Peschel. Die Hetäre bei Symposium und Komos in der attisch rotfigurigen Malerei des 6.–4. Jhs. v. Chr. Frankfurt, 1987, no. 83; T. F. Scanlon, Eros and Greek Athletics (Oxford, 2002), p. 228, fig. 8.4; Perseus Digital Library Project, Tufts University, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Malibu+73.AE.135&object=Vase.
Comparanda
For Myson, see entry no. 1 (86.AE.205).
Worthy of note is the combination of nude male and female bodies on the black background of each side of the krater. The two figures that are rendered in similar poses with corresponding wreaths around their heads give the impression of the same theme at first sight, although their activities are quite distinct. It is interesting that the female is depicted on side A and the athlete on B, since side A is supposed to be the first seen by the viewer.
Myson likes unframed scenes on column-kraters with single monumental figures of athletes, komasts, or naked women on each side. The black vase with little or no ornament and one or two figures on each side is the favorite of the late Archaic mode. See Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 240–42; Abbreviation: BAPDBeazley Archive Pottery Database. http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk, s.v. Myson. For column-kraters by Myson with a similar decorative system, cf. Athens, Agora P 10578 (aulos player on A and nude diskobolos on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 242.70; Abbreviation: Agora 30M. B. Moore. Attic Red-Figured and White-Ground Pottery. The Athenian Agora, vol. 30. Princeton, 1997, p. 163, no. 190, pl. 28); Oxford, Ashmolean Museum 561 (naked diskobolos on A and naked komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.52; Abbreviation: ParalipomenaJ. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1971 349; Abbreviation: JHSJournal of Hellenic Studies 28 [1908]: 316–17, pl. 31; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Oxford 1 [Great Britain 3], pls. 23.1, 22.5); Sammlung Funcke S 490 (hoplite on A and naked youth dancing on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.55 ter, 1630; N. Kunisch, Antiken der Sammlung Julius C. und Margot Funcke [Bochum, 1972], pp. 96–97, no. 85); Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau-Museum 279 (komast on A and naked komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.67; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Altenburg 2 [Germany 18], pl. 54); Kurashiki Ninagawa Museum (satyr on A and naked komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.49; E. Simon, The Kurashiki Ninagawa Museum: Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities [Mainz, 1982], pp. 84–86, no. 35); Copenhagen, National Museum 3836 (also with a satyr on A and a komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.48; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Copenhagen, National Museum 3 [Denmark 3], pl. 126); Gela, Museo Archeologico 12026 (komast in himation on A and naked komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.64; P. Orlandini, “Gela: Nuovi Scavi,” Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità 85 [1960]: 137–39, figs. 2–4; R. Panvini and F. Giudice, eds., Ta Attika, Veder Greco a Gela: Ceramiche attiche figurate dall’antica colonia [Rome, 2003], p. 308, no. G30, entry by L. Sole); New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 21.88.82 (komast on A and naked komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 242.73; available online, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/251106); Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania 5688 (naked woman on A and naked komast on B; Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.62; Abbreviation: Peschel, HetäreI. Peschel. Die Hetäre bei Symposium und Komos in der attisch rotfigurigen Malerei des 6.–4. Jhs. v. Chr. Frankfurt, 1987, pl. 36). Worthy of note is the similarity of the poses of the naked figures.
The diskos thrower is depicted at the moment before the throw. Diskoboloi are often found on column-kraters painted by Myson: Athens, Agora P 10578 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 242.70; Abbreviation: Agora 30M. B. Moore. Attic Red-Figured and White-Ground Pottery. The Athenian Agora, vol. 30. Princeton, 1997, p. 163, no. 190, pl. 28); Athens, Agora P 11025 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.53; Abbreviation: Agora 30M. B. Moore. Attic Red-Figured and White-Ground Pottery. The Athenian Agora, vol. 30. Princeton, 1997, p. 163, no. 189, pl. 27); Oxford 561 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 241.52; Abbreviation: Beazley, “Vases in the Ashmolean,”J. D. Beazley. “Three New Vases in the Ashmolean Museum.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 28, no. 2 (1908): 313–18 pp. 316–17, pl. 31; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Oxford 1 [Great Britain 3], pls. 22.5, 23.1); Villa Giulia 984 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 239.21; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia 2 [Italy 2], pl. 15); Villa Giulia 1044 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 239.23; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Rome, Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia 2 [Italy 2], pl. 16.1.2).
The diskobolos, often represented with javelin throwers or as part of pentathlon or palaestra scenes, becomes a common subject in Attic vase-painting from the last quarter of the sixth century B.C., especially in red-figure. See Abbreviation: Goossens, Thielemans, and Thas, “Sport Scenes,”E. Goossens, S. Thielemans, and O. Thas. “The Popularity of Painting Sport Scenes on Attic Black and Red Figure Vases: A CVA-Based Research, Part A.” Bulletin antike beschaving. Annual Papers on Classical Archaeology 71 (1996): 59–94 pp. 62–65, 69, 72–73, 93; Abbreviation: Legakis, “Athletic Contests,”B. Legakis. “Athletic Contests in Archaic Greek Art.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1977 pp. 235–75, cat. no. 8.
For diskos throwing (one of the athletic events in the pentathlon) and diskoboloi or pentathletes, see also E. N. Gardiner, “Throwing the Diskos,” Abbreviation: JHSJournal of Hellenic Studies 27 (1907): 1–36; P. Jacobstahl, Diskoi (Berlin and Leipzig, 1933); A. Bruckner, “Palästradarstellungen auf frührotfigurigen attischen Vasen” (Ph.D. diss., University of Basel, 1954), pp. 41–61; J. Jüthner, Die athletischen Leibesübungen der Griechen, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1968), pp. 225–303; I. Diskou, ed., Athletics in Ancient Greece: Ancient Olympia at the Olympic Games (Athens, 1976), pp. 188–95; E. N. Gardiner, Athletics of the Ancient World (Chicago, 1980), pp. 154–68, and pp. 177–80 for the pentathlon; Abbreviation: Kyle, AthleticsD. G. Kyle. Athletics in Ancient Athens. Leiden, 1987; rev. ed., 1993, pp. 180–81; G. Waddell, “The Greek Pentathlon,” in Abbreviation: Greek Vases in the Getty 5Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Vol. 5. Occasional Papers on Antiquities 7. Malibu, 1991, pp. 99–106; M. Lavrencic, G. Doblhofer, and P. Mauritsch, Discos (Vienna, 1991); D. G. Kyle, “Athletics in Ancient Athens,” in Abbreviation: Goddess and PolisGoddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens. Edited by J. Neils and E. J. W. Barber. Princeton, 1992, pp. 85–86; Abbreviation: Kephalidou, NikētēsE. Kephalidou. Nikētēs. Eikonographikē meletē tou archaiou hellēnikou athlētismou. Thessaloniki, 1996, pp. 32–33; F. Knauß, “Diskuswurf,” in Abbreviation: Lockender LorbeerLockender Lorbeer. Sport und Spiel in der Antike. Edited by R. Wünsche and F. Knauß. Munich, 2004, pp. 102–17; Abbreviation: Miller, Ancient Greek AthleticsS. G. Miller. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven, 2006, pp. 60–72.
For the pentathlon, see also J. Ebert, Zum Pentathlon der Antike: Untersuchungen über das System der Siegerermittlung und die Ausführung des Halterensprunges (Berlin, 1963); H. A. Harris, “The Method of Deciding Victory in the Pentathlon,” Greece and Rome 19 (1972): 60–64; R. Merkelbach, “Der Sieg im Pentathlon,” Abbreviation: ZPEZeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 11 (1973): 261–69; J. Ebert, “Noch einmal zum Sieg im Pentathlon,” Abbreviation: ZPEZeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 13 (1974): 257–62; G. Doblhofer, P. Mauritsch, and M. Lavrencic, Weitsprung: Texte, Übersetzungen, Kommentar (Vienna, 1992). See also D. G. Kyle, “Games, Prizes, and Athletes in Greek Sport: Patterns and Perspectives (1975–1997),” Classical Bulletin 74 (1998): 103–27; M. Golden, Sport and Society in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 1998); F. Knauß, “Fünfkampf,” in Abbreviation: Lockender LorbeerLockender Lorbeer. Sport und Spiel in der Antike. Edited by R. Wünsche and F. Knauß. Munich, 2004, pp. 96–101.
For the sequence in diskos throwing, see also E. Kakarounga-Stasinopoulou, R. Proskynitopoulou, and S. Papadiamantopoulou-Kalliodi, “Ta agonismata,” in Abbreviation: Mind and BodyMind and Body: Athletic Contests in Ancient Greece. Edited by O. Tzachou-Alexandri. Exh. cat. National Archaeological Museum, 15 May 1989–15 January 1990. Athens, 1989, pp. 98–99. For examples of diskoboloi, see ibid., pp. 257–65, nos. 149–57. On literary sources referring to the diskos, see also M. K. Langdon, “Throwing the Discus in Antiquity: The Literary Evidence,” Nikephoros 3 (1990): 177–82; G. Doblhofer, P. Mauritsch, and M. Lavrencic, Diskos: Sporthistorischer Kommentar (Vienna, 1991), esp. pp. 134–39 for the technique of throwing; S. G. Miller, Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources (Berkeley, 1991), pp. 39–50. See also L. Kurke, The Traffic in Praise: Pindar and the Poetics of Social Economy (Ithaca, N.Y., 1991).
The owl, painted in silhouette, is often depicted on diskoi on vases as a good omen and as a symbol of Athena and Athens. Cf. a lekythos by the Bowdoin Painter in Athens, National Museum 17281 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 684.145; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Athens, National Museum 2 [Greece 2], pl. 12.6–7); a Panathenaic amphora by the Berlin Painter in Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2310 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 132.1; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Munich, Museum Antiker Kleinkunst 4 [Germany 12], pl. 192); and a cup in Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum 85.AE.25 (Abbreviation: von Bothmer, “Red-Figured Kylix”D. von Bothmer. “An Archaic Red-Figured Kylix.” The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 14 (1986): 5–20). The owl probably represents the incised-outline owl on the real diskos. These incised designs may have been intended to make the diskos less slippery in the hand. See Abbreviation: Beazley, “Vases in the Ashmolean,”J. D. Beazley. “Three New Vases in the Ashmolean Museum.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 28, no. 2 (1908): 313–18 pp. 316–17; N. Yalouris, “Athena als Herrin der Pferde,” Museum Helveticum 7 (1950): 53; R. Stupperich, “Eulen der Athena in einer Münsterschen Privatsammlung,” Boreas 3 (1980): 157–73; K. Schauenburg, “Eulen aus Athen und Unteritalien,” Abbreviation: JdIJahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 103 (1988): 70, note 13.
The dancing girl might be related to the komos taking place after the victory of the athlete on B. See Abbreviation: Bron, “Chevaux et la danse,”C. Bron. “Les chevaux et la danse: Comos épinicien et course équestre sur un cratère à figures rouges.” Antike Kunst 40 (1997): 20–28 pp. 26–27; D. Steiner, The Crown of Song (Oxford, 1986), p. 119; Kurke, Traffic in Praise (supra), pp. 112–13. Cf. Pindar, Nem. 9 50–55; P. Schmitt-Pantel, La cité au banquet (Rome, 1992), pp. 39–41, 364–70. For the association of a symposion with an athletic activity, cf. a black-figure stamnos from the Group of Louvre F 314, Paris, Louvre F 314 (Abbreviation: ABVJ. D. Beazley. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, 1956 388.1; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Paris, Louvre 2 [France 2], III H e, pl. 6); a black-figure stamnos in Basel (once Basel, art market, Kunstwerke der Antike, Auktion 70, 1986, no. 203).
For women in the symposion, see Abbreviation: Peschel, HetäreI. Peschel. Die Hetäre bei Symposium und Komos in der attisch rotfigurigen Malerei des 6.–4. Jhs. v. Chr. Frankfurt, 1987; A. Rieche, “Bilder von Frauen,” in Symposion: Griechische Vasen aus dem Antikenmuseum der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, ed. N. Kunisch et al. (Cologne, 1989), pp. 11–15; S. Corner, “Bringing the Outside In: The Andron as Brothel and the Symposium’s Civic Sexuality,” in Greek Prostitutes in the Ancient Mediterranean, 800 BCE–200 CE, ed. A. Glazebrook and M. M. Henry (Madison, 2011), pp. 60–85. For the komos, see also M. Heath, “Receiving the κϖμος: The Context and Performance of Epinician,” American Journal of Philology 109 (1988): 180–95.
For nude dancing girls with krotala, cf. a hydria by the Washing Painter in London, British Museum E 203 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 1131.164; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum London 6 [Great Britain 8], pl. 88.3); a cup by the Thalia Painter in Berlin, Antikensammlung 3251 (Abbreviation: ARV2J. D. Beazley. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford, 1963 113.7; Abbreviation: CVACorpus Vasorum Antiquorum Berlin, Antiquarium 2 [Germany 21], pl. 57.2); a terracotta relief from Olbia, dated to circa the first quarter of the fifth century B.C. (T. L. Samoylova, ed., Ancient Greek Sites on the Northwest Coast of the Black Sea [Kiev, 2001], p. 5). For the subject, see D. Williams, “Women on Athenian Vases: Problems of Interpretation,” in Images of Women in Antiquity, ed. A. Cameron and D. Kuhrt (London, 1983), pp. 92–106, esp. 97–99, fig. 7.6; V. Liventhal, “What Goes On among the Women? The Setting of Some Attic Vase Paintings of the Fifth Century B.C.,” Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet I Rom (Acta Instituti Romani Regni Sueciae) 14 (1985): 37–52; Abbreviation: Bonfante, “Nudity,”L. Bonfante. “Nudity as Costume in Classical Art.” American Journal of Archaeology 93 (1989): 543–70 558–62 on female nudity; S. Lewis, The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook (New York, 2002), pp. 101–12; D. Castaldo, “The Sound of Krotala Maddening Women: Krotala and Percussion Instruments in Ancient Attic Pottery,” in Abbreviation: Archaeology of RepresentationsAn Archaeology of Representations: Ancient Greek Vase-Painting and Contemporary Methodologies. Edited by D. Yatromanolakis. Athens, 2009, pp. 282–97. For krotala or kremvala, see S. Michailidis, Enkyklopaideia tēs archaias hellēnikēs mousikēs (Athens, 1982), pp. 175–76; M. Litchfield West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1992), pp. 123, 125; Museum of Ancient, Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Musical Instruments: Museum Exhibits, Cultural Center of Bank of Macedonia and Thrace (Thessaloniki, 1997), pp. 59–61, nos. Kr1–Kr5; T. J. Mathiesen, Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Lincoln, Neb., 1999), pp. 163–66; Abbreviation: Bundrick, Music and ImageS. D. Bundrick. Music and Image in Classical Athens. Cambridge, 2005, p. 107.
On nudity in Greek athletics, see N. Crowther, “Athletic Dress and Nudity in Greek Athletics,” Eranos 80 (1982): 163–68; J. Mouratidis, “The Origin of Nudity in Greek Athletics,” Journal of Sport History 12 (1985): 213–32; J. P. Thuiller, “La nudité athlétique (Grèce, Etrurie, Rome),” Nikephoros 1 (1988): 29–48; Abbreviation: Bonfante, “Nudity,”L. Bonfante. “Nudity as Costume in Classical Art.” American Journal of Archaeology 93 (1989): 543–70 543–70; M. McDonnell, “The Introduction of Athletic Nudity: Thucydides, Plato, and the Vases,” Abbreviation: JHSJournal of Hellenic Studies 111 (1991): 182–93; idem, “Athletic Nudity among the Greeks and Etruscans: The Evidence of the ‘Perizoma Vases,’” in Spectacles sportifs et scéniques dans le monde étrusco-italique (Rome, 1993), pp. 395–407; Abbreviation: Kephalidou, NikētēsE. Kephalidou. Nikētēs. Eikonographikē meletē tou archaiou hellēnikou athlētismou. Thessaloniki, 1996, p. 39, note 73; Abbreviation: Goossens, Thielemans, and Thas, “Sport Scenes,”E. Goossens, S. Thielemans, and O. Thas. “The Popularity of Painting Sport Scenes on Attic Black and Red Figure Vases: A CVA-Based Research, Part A.” Bulletin antike beschaving. Annual Papers on Classical Archaeology 71 (1996): 59–94 p. 62; Abbreviation: Miller, Ancient Greek AthleticsS. G. Miller. Ancient Greek Athletics. New Haven, 2006, pp. 11–13; D. G. Kyle, Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World (Oxford, 2007), pp. 85–90. For Greek athletics and the Greek body, see R. Osborne, The History Written on the Classical Greek Body (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 27–84.
For the significance of the wreath, see E. Kefalidou, “Ceremonies of Athletic Victory in Ancient Greece: An Interpretation,” Nikephoros 12 (1999): 100–102 (with a synopsis of earlier interpretations). See also J. Klein, Der Kranz bei den alten Griechen (Gunzburg, 1912); L. Deubner, “Die Bedeutung des Kranzes im klassischen Altertum,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 30 (1933): 70–104; M. Blech, Studien zum Kranz bei der Griechen (Berlin, 1982); E. Kefalidou, “The Plants of Victory in Ancient Greece and Rome,” in Plants and Culture: Seeds of the Cultural Heritage of Europe, ed. J. P. Morel and M. Mercuri (Modena, 2009), pp. 39–44; M. M. Lee, Body, Dress, and Identity in Ancient Greece (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 142–45.