Mixing Vessel, 5th century BCE

  • Leningrad Painter, Greek

Clay

  • Overall: 15 5/8 × 15 3/8 × 13 inches (39.7 × 39.1 × 33 cm) Overall (diam. of foot): 6 9/16 inches (16.6 cm)

City of Detroit Purchase

24.120

On View

  • Ancient Greek and Roman S2BB

Department

Greco-Roman and Ancient European

This vessel, with handles reminiscent of columns, was designed as a container in which to mix wine and water for serving at social gatherings. On the most important side of the krater, Helios, the sun god, wearing a rayed sun disk on his head, is shown standing in his chariot drawn by two winged horses. He represents the sun in its daily journey across the sky; the ocean waves and a leaping dolphin lie below.

collection of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Gotha, Germany)

collection of Herzog Albert Ernest Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Gotha, Germany)

deposited to Schloss Friedenstein [Gotha Museum, no. H. A. 57] (Gotha, Germany)

1924-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Valentiner, W. R. "Greek Vases," Bulletin of the DIA 6, no. 2 (November 1924): pp. 10-13, repr. Richter, G.M.A. "Greek Art in Detroit," Art in America, vol. 15 (1926-27): pp. 25-35, (fig. 10). Beazley, J. D. Greek Vases in Poland. Oxford, 1928, p. 40, no. 2. Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-figure Vase Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1942, p. 375; 1963, p. 569. Schauenburg, K. Helios. Berln, 1955, p. 70, no. 320, (fig. 17). Dörig, J. and Gigon, O. Der Kampf der Götter und Titanen. Olten, 1961, p. 85, no. 33. Schauenberg, K. "Gestirnbilder in Athen und Unteritalien," AntK, vol. 5, pp. 51-64, p. 53, no. 30. Lacroix, L. Etudes d'archéologie numismatique. Paris, 1974, p. 94, pl. 25.1. Greek Vase Painting in Midwestern Collections. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. Chicago, December 22, 1979-February 24, 1980, pp. 168-169, cat. 96 [exh. organized by W. G. Moon and L. Berge]. Gall, H. von. "Bemerkungen zum Kyrosgrab im Pasagadae und zu verwandten Denkmälern," MittIran, vol. 12, pp. 271-279, pl. 43.1-2. Driscoll, Ann. "The Pig Painter: Parties, Poets and Pollaiuolo," Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 80, no. 3 (March 1993): p. 96, (fig. 13) (reverse), p. 108, no. 48. [Gives Leningrad Painter attribution of the Detroit krater, but discusses its former attribution to the Pig Painter]. Henshaw, Julia, ed. A Visitor's Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 113 (ill.). Madigan, B. Corinthian and Attic Vases in the Detroit Institute of Arts. In Monumenta Graeca et Romana, vol. 12. Leiden/Boston, 2008, pp. 48-49, cat. 63, (fig. 90-91).

attributed to Leningrad Painter, Mixing Vessel, 5th century BCE, clay. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 24.120.