Bell crater

Lucania, southern Italy, late 5th century BCE

Light ochre body, red-figure painting.

H: 35 cm

UMP 8327

This bell krater with red-figure painting was made in the workshop of the Pisticci Painter, the founder of Lucanian vase painting in southern Italy. Winged Eros is pictured in the centre of the group on one side, a diadem in his hair and a strigil (a metal tool for cleaning the body) in his right hand. Before him stands a woman in a headdress (kekryphalos) wearing a chiton (tunic) and himation (mantle); behind him is a young man in a mantle with a diadem in his hair and staff in his right hand. Portrayed on the other side of the vessel are three young men in mantles, two of them

holding staffs. A laurel wreath is painted below the upper lip; in the bottom section is a decorative band of meanders interspersed with crosses.