Vase Catalog Number: Louvre G 103

Decoration:

Side A: Herakles and Antaios grapple in the center of the composition. Both figures are nude, with the well-defined anatomy characteristic of the artist. Herakles' black hair and beard contrasts with Antaios' brown done in dilute glaze. They wear fillets in added red, and Herakles' hair line is highlighted with three-dimensional dots of relief line. At right in the background, two female figures draped in Ionic chiton and himation, wearing simple fillets in their hair, flee to the right with their arms raised in fright. A single draped woman at the left, wearing chiton, himation, and sakkos head cover, flees to the left, holding up her skirt with right hand in the background. Behind the latter figure, Herakles' attributes hang on or lean against the wall: lion skin (details done in relief line), knotted club, and quiver (with ties in added red at top). The latter interrupts the lower part of the elaborate pattern of palmettes which appear above the left handle.

Side B: A flute player, dressed in chiton and himation (the folds of which artfully overlap), holds the double flute in his raised left hand, grasps the skirt of his chiton in his right hand and steps up onto the performer's platform with his left foot. The concert is attended by one male seated on a stool at left and two at right. Each is draped from the waist down in a himation and holds a staff. The figure at the left wears a wreath in added red and has sideburns done in dilute glaze. The details of the anatomy are done both in relief line and dilute glaze. Three palmettes appear above the left handle.

Upper border ornament under the rim is a band of palmettes running right. Between the bases of the handles is a double row of palmettes and lotuses linked by tendrils

The artist is one of the red figure pioneers. Boardman 1975, 32-33 notes that the subject matter on Side A is new in theme and composition (large figures filling the pictorial space on a large vase).

Inscriptions: On side A both figures are named: hERAKLES, Herakles, below the combatants, and [AN]TAIOS, [An]taios, above the figure's head in retrograde. The artist's signature appears beginning to the left of the face of the woman at the left: EUPHRONIOS EGRAPHSEN, Euphronios painted it. On B, LEAGROS KALOS, Leagros is beautiful, beginning to the left of the left figure's head. On the platform: [ME]LAS KALOS, Melas is beautiful (Melas is the name of the performer); in the field above to the right: POLUKLES, Polykles, [K]EPHISODOROS, Kephisodoros.

Shape Description: Calyx krater

Sources Used: CVA, Paris 1, plates 4-5.; Boardman 1975, 32-33, fig. 23; Arias & Hirmer 1961, 65

(Suzanne Heim)