Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Bust of Dionysos and Comic Actors (A); Dionysos, Satyr, Maenad (B) (c. 390–380 BCE): Art, History and Details

Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Bust of Dionysos and Comic Actors (A); Dionysos, Satyr, Maenad (B) (c. 390–380 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Choregos Painter (South Italian, Apulian, active c. 390–380 BCE).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Dionysos, the god of wine, theater, and the mysteries, dominates both sides of this bell-krater, a vessel for mixing water and wine. On the front, he appears in bust form, wearing a fillet and laurel wreath. Over his shoulder and behind his head rests his thyrsos, sprouting grapevines. Comic actors, identifiable by their masks and padded costumes, flank the colossal bust, stretching for a bunch of grapes on the left and holding a large skyphos (wine cup) on the right. On the reverse, Dionysos marches in procession with his retinue, a satyr and maenad.

Object facts

• Title: Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Bust of Dionysos and Comic Actors (A); Dionysos, Satyr, Maenad (B)
• Date: c. 390–380 BCE
• Creator attribution: Choregos Painter (South Italian, Apulian, active c. 390–380 BCE)
• Culture: South Italian, Apulian
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Overall: 38 cm (14 15/16 in.); Diameter of rim: 40.3 cm (15 7/8 in.); Diameter of foot: 18.4 cm (7 1/4 in.)
• Collection: GR - South Italy
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1989.73

A detail from the museum

The large bust of Dionysos may represent a stage prop or symbolize the multifaceted god.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Turner, Evan H., et al. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.