Krater

Object Number

SMP7240

Name

Krater

Description

Krater

three walls

non-joining. PH. 0.09m.

0.05m.

0.06m. Hard orange clay

cream slip; dull brown glaze

flaking. Spattered inside. IN the drawing and the photograph

the three pieces are arranged in what I take to be their correct height relative to one another

assuming that the fabric becomes progressively thicker towards the base of the bowl; and so

incidentally

do the horizontal groups of three framing lines. Large hatched meander between two figured zones. Above

lower part of a quadruped

advancing to the right; bird with raised wing. Below

head and antlers of a stag

with reserved and dotted eye; top of a Tree of Life

on which a little bird has settled; antler of a second stag. From the same zone comes the lowermost piece

showing the legs of two quadrupeds

standing back to back. Early LG

to judge from the stiff and laboured animal style; the spattering is a remarkable survival of PG technique. Stags are not common in Geometric painting

yet were already in the Attic repertoire by MG II (GGP pl. 4f). THe bird in the upper zone is related to those on some Naxian LG vases (reference: Delos XV pl. 38 Bb 35

pl. 40 Bb 50; AM liv (1929) 154 figs. 6

7.)

where the tip of the wing appears in silhouette

and rises sharply above the line of the back. Of especial interest is the sadly fragmentary Tree of Life

which could well be the centre of an antithetical composition as on the well known Cesnola krater in NEw York

and on the hydria from Chalcis by the same painter (reference: AAA ii. 1 (1969) 27-9 figs. 6

7; BICS xvi (1971) 1 ff.

pl. 1 b

c. The latter article supersedes my account of the Cesnola Painted and Workshop in GGP 172-4.). On our lowermost piece the placing of the animals back to back may perhaps indicate that these antithetical groups were repeated around the zone. The Tree

the bird

and the cream slip may all be symptoms of Euboeo-Cycladic influence; but there can be no doubt that the fabric is local.

Preservation State

Fragment

Department

Knossos

Collection

Stratigraphical Museum

Other IDs

G84

EMu IRN

91546