Apulian Krater of the Painter of the Ilioupersis
Apulian Krater of the Painter of the Ilioupersis
The collecting history of this krater began in the second half of the seventeenth century, when it was found in the thematic collection of ancient figured vases, assembled in Naples by the renowned and erudite Neapolitan lawyer Giuseppe Valletta (1636-1714). A part of the Valletta collection was then acquired by Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gaultieri (1660-1728) and in turn by Pope Clement XII in 1730.
Already published in the early eighteenth century by Monfaucon, on the main face there is a tragic scene to which various interpretations have been attributed (Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colononus, Euripides Supplici): at an altar, flanked by a woman and facing a standing man with a sceptre; on the left, an armoured youth above a seated woman; on the upper register, above the altar, there is Aphrodite with a small Eros, while a Fury emerges from the side. On the secondary side a Dionysiac scene is depicted Dionysius with a satyr, Eros in flight and two Maenads at the sides.
It is attributed to the Painter of the Ilioupersis, an Apulian ceramic painter among the pioneers of the so-called “ornate” style.