Column Krater Depicting Symposiasts and a Satyr Dancing with Youths

This red-figure column-krater depicts a symposium with three men on klinai and girl playing auloi. On the left a bearded man lies on a kline, chest frontal, head to the right. Only his upper half and half of the kline are shown. He has a mantle draped around his left shoulder and waist, and wears a thick fillet and wreath. He gestures to his fellow banqueters. Beneath him a table is visible, and above on the wall on the left hangs a basket with covering cloth, and on the right a flute case. To the right is a girl playing auloi in chiton, mantle, thick fillet, and wreath who stands in profile to the right playing auloi. A bearded man and a youth lie on the next kline. Both wear mantles, thick fillets, and wreaths in a fashion similar to the first two figures. The man holds a phiale in his right hand and turns his head to the right towards the youth who faces and gestures toward him; a small kylix in black hangs from the right index finger of the youth. Beneath them a table and footstool are visible; hanging above from left to right are a basket with covering cloth and a kylix. All three support themselves by resting their left elbows on cushions.

The back depicts an old man dancing and two youths. In the center a bearded, balding, potbellied man advances to the right as if dancing. He raises his left foot high off the ground, holds a stick in the air above his head in his right hand, and extends his left hand out, holding a mantle which is wrapped around his back and shoulders. He wears a wreath and thick fillet, and appears to have a string (possibly an amulet) around his right forearm. On the left a mantled youth goes left, looking around, a staff in his right hand. On the right another mantled youth moves left, holding a staff out in his right hand. The two youths have fillets.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [cat. no. 208]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.