South Italian - Lucanian

Museum: Taranto, Museo Nazionale Archeologico
Size: 72 cm. (volute-crater)
Function: convivial, display
Technique: red-figure
Style: South Italian, Lucanian
Subject/s: A. youthful Dionysos, seated on a rock and wearing high fur-lined boots, fancy head-dress and only a mantle over his thighs , watches a maenad dance to the pipes. Behind him a female wearing an animal skin over a long-sleeved, short-skirted dress and high boots, holds a torch over his head and a situla. A stayr, at ease, watches. B. Two scenes presumably connected: a satyr play performed at a festival. Above, Perseus terrifies satyrs by displaying Gorgo's severed head; below, the young men and women dance, wearing fancy 'basket-hats', at a vintaging festival held in honour of Apollo Karneia. A pillar inscribed Karneios is on the far left.
Date: around 400
Analysis: 'figure-hugging' nearly transparent drapery and jewellery recall late 5th c. Athenian vase, e.g., Meidias Painter, but the 'fancy/exotic' dress and angst-ridden faces reveal local talent. The vase was found in the Spartan 'colony' Taras and the festival is known to have been celebrated in Sparta.