Stamnos (mixing vessel) with Cover: Dionysos, Maenads, and Satyr | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1925.30.42.A-B
People: The Christie Painter, Greek (active 440 - 430 BCE)
Title: Stamnos (mixing vessel) with Cover: Dionysos, Maenads, and Satyr
Classification: Vessels
Work Type: vessel
Date: c. 440 BCE
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica
Period: Classical period, High
Culture: Greek
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/292316

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Terracotta; reddish clay with fine lustrous black glaze
Technique: Red-figure
Dimensions: H. (without cover) 39.2 x W. (body) 32.2 cm (15 7/16 x 12 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Sig. Pascale, (by 1897) sale; to Joseph Clark Hoppin, Pomfret, CT (1897-1925), 1897, bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1925.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number: Beazley Archive Database #213607

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Joseph C. Hoppin
Accession Year: 1925
Object Number: 1925.30.42.A-B
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description: Red-figure stamnos with lid.

Side A: a thiasos. A bearded Dionysos processes to the right, wearing a long chiton, himation, and ivy wreath. In his lowered right hand is a kantharos and in his left is a vertical thyrsos. The god turns back, looking at the maenad behind him. Wearing a peplos, she holds a lighted torch in her left hand and an oinochoe in her right. To the right of Dionysos is a satyr followed by a second maenad, both wearing wreaths. Nude and beardless, the satyr plays the double-pipes. The maenad wears a flowing peplos and her hair is loose around her shoulders. She looks back towards the procession and a kithara hangs from her wrist.

Side B: satyr and maenads. Nude and bearded, a satyr runs to the right, chasing a maenad. Below the satyr is a drinking horn. The maenad, wearing a belted peplos, flees to the right holding a horizontal thrysos in her right hand. At the far left, a second maenad flees the scene. She wears an unbelted peplos and carries a thyrsos. Both maenads wear a fillet and wreath, rendered in added white.

Figures stand on a groundline consisting of maeanders and cross-squares. Added white is used throughout for details including the satyr's musculature, wreaths, and the tips of the thyrsoi. A pair of stacked palmettes with tendrils appear below each handle, which are also topped with an additional palmette.

Publication History

Joseph Clark Hoppin and Albert Gallatin, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, U.S.A.: volume 1, Hoppin and Gallatin Collections, Libraire Ancienne Edouard Champion (Paris, 1926), 10, pl. 16.3-4
George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 128.
J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England, 1963), 1048.38
Caroline Houser, Dionysos and His Circle: Ancient Through Modern, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1979), no. 10.
Thomas Carpenter, Thomas Mannack, and Melanie Mendonca, ed., Beazley addenda : additional references to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford, 1989), 321
M. Maass and J.M. Snyder, Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece (New Haven, 1989), p. 158, fig. 8A
Susan B. Matheson, Polygnotos and Vase Painting in Classical Athens (The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), pp. 122-128, pl. 111A, p. 126

Exhibition History

Greek Art and Life: From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Private Lenders, Fogg Art Museum, 03/07/1950 - 04/15/1950
Dionysos and His Circle: Ancient through Modern, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/10/1979 - 02/10/1980

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu