Vase Catalog Number: Harvard 1925.30.42

Decoration:

Side A: A thiasos, with Dionysos and his entourage in procession to the right. The god wears a chiton, himation, and an ivy wreath with touches of added white. He holds a thyrsos vertically in his left hand and a kantharos in his lowered right. He looks back at the maenad behind him, who wears a peplos and carries a blazing torch in her left hand and a black oinochoe in her right. Added white is used for the fillet that binds her hair and for the fire of the torch. To the right of Dionysos and slightly behind him is a beardless young satyr playing the double-pipes (auloi). Beyond the satyr, at far right, the procession is led by a second maenad, who turns to look back at her companions. Unlike the first maenad, her hair hangs lose in flowing tresses and the overfold of her peplos is belted. In her left arm she holds a rounded "cradle-kithara," which hangs from her wrist by a cord. Both she and the satyr wear wreaths drawn with added white, now badly worn. Side B: In the center, a satyr with a white wreath pursues a maenad, who flees to the right while looking back at her attacker. Below the satyrs legs is a drinking horn. The maenad wears a belted peplos and carries a thyrsos horizontally in her right hand. Her hair is bound with a white fillet, over which is a wreath in added white. A second maenad flees to the left. She too has a white fillet and wreath, but her peplos is unbelted. In her left arm she cradles a thyrsos, which has a second branch rendered in added white; on the tips of both thyrsoi, the leaves are drawn with brown dilute glaze, also used for the minor musculature of the satyrs.

Below each handle is a pair of stacked palmettes, from which scrolling tendrils reach up to enclose another pair of palmettes above the handles; between these is a fifth palmette pointing downward. Bands of egg pattern circle the rim and partly enclose the handle roots. A band of black tongues circles the shoulder below the neck, and there is a narrow band of rays around the lower body, not touching the foot. The groundline circling the lower body consists of groups of three or four stopt maeanders separated by cross-squares. The black lid has a reserved band around the outer edge with rosettes separated by vertical row of dots. There is a zone of rays below the knob, which is decorated with horizontal stripes.

Parallels:

The stamnoi of the Speira-footed Class all have similar "Polygnotan" ornament; cf. shape and ornament of Munich 2414, by the Kleophon Painter (ARV2, 1143, 6.

Collection History:

Bequest of J. C. Hoppin. Bought in Santa Maria di Capua in 1897.

Condition:

Drill holes by one of the roots of handle A/B indicate a minor ancient repair; otherwise in very good condition, with only minor scratches.

Shape Description:

Philippaki assigns this vase to the Speira-footed Class, with the characteristic short foot in the shape of speira (coil or ring). The body is less rotund than the stamnos by the Curti Painter (Harvard 1925.30.40). The conical lid has a pomegranate knob.

Sources Used:

CVA, Hoppin-Gallatin; Philippaki 1967.

Other Bibliography:

CVA, Hoppin-Gallatin, USA 1, 10, pl. 16, 3-4; Philippaki 1967, 144, no. 5, and 146.

(Michael Padgett)