Column Krater of the Athana Painter
Athana Painter (active c. 590-570 BC) · c. 590-575 BC
Around the upper zone of this wine-mixing bowl runs a banquet. Four couples recline on couches with lotus-shaped legs, the women bare to the waist and wearing necklaces, the men bearded and holding drinking horns, dishes and a lyre; little tables laden with food stand before them, and lyres, a bowl, a breastplate and helmets hang on the wall. On the flat plaques above the handles are a gorgon and a winged, bearded figure, perhaps one of the sons of Boreas, both in short tunics and winged boots. Lower down are the animal friezes and riders typical of Corinthian pottery.
The krater was made at Corinth around 590 to 575 BC, when Corinthian workshops dominated the export trade in fine pottery, and it was found in an Etruscan tomb at Cerveteri. The painter is called the Athana Painter after an inscription on another of his vases. His faces and the women's bodies are drawn in outline and filled with added colour, and a firing accident turned part of the glaze a greenish yellow on one side. The vase came to the Louvre in 1861 with the Campana collection and was assigned to the museum the following year.
Did You Know? A firing accident left part of the glaze greenish yellow, a flaw the potter could not correct once the kiln was closed.
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