Red-Figure Column Krater (Mixing Vessel): Komos (Revel) (470–460 BCE): Art, History and Details

Red-Figure Column Krater (Mixing Vessel): Komos (Revel) (470–460 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pig Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 480–460 BCE).

The work and its context

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

Used for mixing wine and water at a symposium (or drinking party), this column-krater speaks to the perils and pleasures of drinking. On one side, a bearded man holding a staff and a drinking cup leans forward, a red stream of vomit falling from his mouth. Before him is a nude young boy, holding a tortoiseshell lyre and a basket or pail. On the other side, a young man dances, holding a deep cup and wearing just one boot. On the neck above him, scratched in large letters, is the name SIMONOS, probably indicating that the vase once belonged to someone named Simon.

Object facts

• Title: Red-Figure Column Krater (Mixing Vessel): Komos (Revel)
• Date: 470–460 BCE
• Creator attribution: Pig Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 480–460 BCE)
• Culture: Greek, Attic
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Diameter: 40.4 cm (15 7/8 in.); Overall: 41 cm (16 1/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1924.197

A detail from the museum

The bearded man on this vase is vomiting—perhaps a humorous warning against over imbibing.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Leonard C. Hanna

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• American Art Association. Illustrated Catalogue of the Art Collection of the Expert Antiquarians C. & E. Canessa of New York, Paris, Naples: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Gothic and Renaissance Sculpture in Marble, Bronze, Stucco, Terra-Cotta and Wood, Limoges Enamels, Primitive Paintings, Early Tapestries, Orfèvrerie, Italian Majolica and Furniture. 1924. 1924 JAN 25 1924 JAN 26.
• Howard, Rossiter. "A Red-Figured Wine Bowl." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11, no. 3 (1924): 64-67.

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.