Side B: draped youth on left

Side B: draped youth in center

Side A: komast in center

Side B: draped youth in center, upper half

Side B: draped youth on left, upper half

Side B: jumping weights behind youths

Collection: Cambridge, Harvard University Art Museums
Summary: Side A: Komos, with three youthsSide B: Three draped youths
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Painter: Attributed to the Christie Painter
Date: ca. 440 BC - ca. 430 BC
Dimensions:

H. 0.309 m.
Primary Citation: ARV2, 1047, 20; Beazley Addenda 2, 321.
Shape: Bell krater
Beazley Number: 213589
Period: High Classical

Condition:

Unbroken; surface worn and pitted in places, most noticeable on the handles and adjacent areas on the body, and on the right-hand figures on either side. The glaze misfired red beneath both handles.

Decoration Description:

Side A: komos. Three nude young revelers are in procession to the right. All three have cloaks draped over their shoulders — that of the one at right has slipped off his right shoulder — and all three wear fillets in their short, curly hair. The komast at left throws his chest out and rests his right hand on his hip. In his left hand he holds a staff. Unlike the other two, he is infibulated. The middle youth is playing the double-flutes (auloi); his cheeks are puffed out as he blows. The leader of the procession turns his body frontal and looks back at his companions, gesturing with his lowered right hand. The torch in his left hand shows that the procession takes place at night; they have left one drinking party and are reeling toward another, like Plato's Alcibiades (Plat. Sym. 212d).

Side B: Two youths stand in conversation with a third youth at right; all three wear himations and have short hair fringed with curls of dilute glaze. The youth at left gestures with his right hand; his companion holds a staff with his right hand. The youth at right holds out his right hand, palm upward. In the field above hangs a pair of jumping weights, a common filling device, perhaps suggesting a setting in the palaestra.

A laurel wreath circles the vase beneath the rim. Bands of egg-pattern nearly circle the handle roots. The groundlines on either side consist of groups of three maeanders to right alternating with saltire-squares. The side of the foot is reserved, as is the space between the handle roots.

Shape Description:

Bell-krater of standard type for the period: torus rim; body tapering to a stem; disk foot with groove at top of side; two handles tilted upward and rolled back slightly.

Essay:

Buitron No. 71

Collection History:

Bequest of Mrs. Alfred Mansfield Brooks.

Sources Used:

Buitron 1972.

Other Bibliography:

E. H. Dohan, "A Bell-Krater by the Christie Painter," The University Museum Bulletin, 6 (1936) 126-8, no. 4; Buitron 1972, 128-9, no. 71.