Column Krater with a Komos and Three Maenads

This red-figure column-krater depicts a komos. On the front are three males and a woman. On the left, a bearded, mantled man moves left, looking at a skyphos (less handles) which he holds up in his right hand; a staff is in the left. He wears a thick fillet in reserve around his head. Part of the front of the figure and skyphos extend into and beyond the left border of the picture field. The front of his right foot has been covered with glaze. Behind him a youth with barbiton moves right. He has a mantle draped over his left shoulder and a similar band around his head. In his right hand he holds up a plectron. In front of him a bearded, mantled man moves right, looking around. He has a staff in his right hand and a band around his head. On the far right is a woman wearing a chiton, mantle, necklace, and fillet moving right and looking around. She holds a pair of auloi in her left hand. Her left foot overlaps the right border of the picture field. The short cropped hair gives her an androgynous appearance, suggesting that the painter might have been confused as to the sex of the figure.

On the back are three maenads. On the left a woman in a chiton and mantle who holds a thyrsos in her right hand stands in profile to the right. In the center another woman in a chiton and mantle stands to the left, extending her right arm. On the right a third woman in chiton and mantle moves left, looking around. A bag hangs between the last two figures.

On the rim are silhouettes of confronted lions and boars.

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]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.