With its wide mouth and rounded body, this ceramic bell-krater from southern Italy (Apulia) was well-suited for mixing and serving diluted wine. Thematically, the scene on the front of the vessel echoes this purpose, depicting a maenad (female follower of Dionysos) crowning the young god of wine as a horned youth (typical male follower, similar to a satyr) looks on. Dionysos holds a stemless kantharos (cup) in his hand, further emphasizing the god’s connection to wine, as diluted wine could be ladled from the krater into a pitcher or a cup like the one depicted here. Each figure carries a thyrsos, a giant fennel stalk topped by a large pinecone, flowers, or ivy, an object typically associated with Dionysos and his followers that emphasizes the god’s association with nature and fertility.
The back side of the vessel depicts three young men, all clothed, conversing. These kinds of figures routinely appear on the reverse sides of many shapes of southern Italian vases. A band of laurel leaves runs continuously around the krater, while a band of three broken meanders alternated with dotted saltires (diagonal crosses) provides the groundline for the images. The krater is painted in the red-figure style, where slip (liquified clay) that turned black during firing was applied to the background and outlines of figures, while the figures themselves were left in the natural red-orange color of the clay.
