Vase Catalog Number: RISD 22.215

Decoration:

Side A: Herakles fighting two centaurs. To the left a statuesque Herakles is shown in heroic nudity, beardless and youthful, striding right and swinging his club behind his head against two centaurs. One centaur advances with furrowed brow to fight back, armed with a stone in his right hand and a chlamys or cloak tied around his neck and thrown over his left arm as a shield. The other flees to right with arms unusually twisted behind his back, as if to rub a bruise or pull out an arrow (von Bothmer). He grimaces in pain with his mouth open, as if howling. The Centaurs are bearded, with short, woolly hair, snub noses with flaring nostrils, large ears and African (?) profiles. Around their waists are girdles of hair to mark the change between human and equine bodies. The coarseness of the faces of the centaurs is in marked contrast to that of Herakles and those of the youth and man on Side B.

Side B: A youth and a man. In the center is a Doric column. To the left a youth draped in a himation faces right. To the right a bearded man similarly attired faces left. His right arm hangs at his side while he leans on a staff with his left. Both man and youth wear fillets of added white on their heads.

Above, on lip, continuous laurel-leaf pattern with a line down the center leaf decorates the exterior. Below, on each side, from handle to handle, a coarse meander and dotted square pattern occur. Grooves and fillets accent subdivisions of the krater and serve as discreet decorative elements.

Parallels:

For Doric columns: Boston (APS p.6, no.5), Berlin2400, and Lecce 571. For subject matter: Louvre G 570 (Sisyphus Painter).

Collection History:

Formerly in Hope Collection. Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke, 1922. Excavated during the eighteenth century.

Condition:

Minor surface wear does not obscure figured areas.

Sources Used:

CVA, USA 2, RISD 1 pp. 39-40, Pl.28: 1a-b; Ashmead & Phillips 1976, pp. 48-50, no.58, p.49, fig.58, Pl.58: a-i

Other Bibliography:

Moon, BSR XI (1929) p.35

(Susan H. Allen)