Bell Krater with Dionysiac Scenes

Description The wine-god Dionysus appears often on vases of this shape (called a bell krater), which held wine for drinking parties. He is usually shown as a bearded and majestic god. Here, Dionysus holds a thyrsus (a pole often twined with ivy and grapevines and topped with a pine cone) in one hand and a kantharos (a high-handled drinking cup) in the other. He turns his head to gaze at a maenad who follows, while a satyr playing the double flutes leads the procession. The maenad carries an oinochoe (a wine jug) and a lighted torch, indicating that the group's journey takes place at night.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [cat. no. 170]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902