Apulian Red-Figure Krater

An ancient Apulian Greek red-figure bell-krater with a maenad seated upon a rocky outcrop holds a large flower. At left, a nude youth stands holding a thyrsos and large pyxis; his himation draped over his left arm; on the reverse, two draped youths.

Apulia, Magna Graecia, Southern Italy.

Ca. 350 - 300 BC.

Height: 12 in. (30.5 cm).

The output and quality of the Greek colonial potters working in Southern Italy increased greatly following the Peloponnesian War when Attic exports fell off sharply. South Italian Colonial Greek craftsmanship of the 4th century BC was an amalgamation of the Ionian (Athenian, Attic) conventions, and Doric (western colonial Greek) styles, with a noticeable native Italian aesthetic. The five predominant regional schools of South Italian pottery were: Apulian, Sicilian, Lucanian, Paestan, and Campanian.

Formerly in the collection of Professor Alcibiades N. Oikonomides (d.1988), Chicago (Classics professor at Loyola University), acquired in the 1970s; subsequently, M.B. collection, California.

Published: J. Eisenberg, Art of the Ancient World, vol. XXI, (2010), no. 162.

Inv#: 9066

Guaranteed Authentic

$8,000