Lydos Column Krater
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Key Facts
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Made in 560-550BC
56.5cms tall
Potter and painter is known as Lydos
Column Krater used to mix wine and
water at symposiums
Lydos
• Came from Lydia
• Signed himself as a slave
• Little is known about him but he is said
to be the creator of several vases and
the decorator of vases made by other
artists
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The Column Krater
• Used to mix wine and water then placed in the center
of the room at a symposium and people would collect
their drinks in other vessels.
• A krater of this size would have been carried by two
slaves.
• It’s known as a column krater due to it’s column like
handles that join at the lip and shoulder
Myth and Characters
• The vase depicts the story of Dionysus taking Hephaistos back
to Mt Olympus
Dionysus
• Holding a wine horn
• Is carrying a vine
• Also carrying ivy
• Suitable because it would have
been used at a party and he is the
god of parties.
• Appears on the centre of side A
surrounded by satyrs and maenads
• Hephaistos can be seen on the
donkey
Painting technique
• Black Figure
• Red/purple clay slip has been used to colour the
clothing of many characters and also the tongue
design that can be seen on the shoulder of the vase
• Incising was used to add in details by scratching
some of the black away from the figures. Eg. faces of
the satyrs, folds of Hephaistos’ cloak, the hair on the
horse and the figures.
• Again the white paint on the Maenads to show they
are female, but it fades easily
Satyrs and
Maenads
Satyrs
• Tails
• Half animal and half
human
• Generally naked and
hairy
• Behind Hephaistos on
side B
• He is overlapping other
figures and he is facing
outwards
Maenads
• Usually dancing, seen by the
position of her arms and the
pose of her legs and feet
•Female followers of Dionysus
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Mood
• General mood of a party, joyous and drunken
occasion
• The mood on the Hephaistos side of the vase
is a little calmer and less joyous than the
Dionysus side.
• The artist has inserted little funny figures in
the work eg, the satyr trying to steal the wine,
Satyr pulling another’s tail
• Also shows it’s a party through the dancing of
all the figures and the large amount of grapes
and vines seen all over the vase
Composition
• The scene is on the belly of the vase and goes all the
way around in a single band.
• In drawing a continuous frieze the artist would have
had to draw around the handles, he painted smaller
figures under the handle joins to deal with this
problem.
• Painter shows depth through overlapping and the use
of the small bird flying over head of Dionysus
• The artist also uses two borders to contain the
images, the tongue detailing around the top and the
red lines underneath
• Grand Style refers to the more structured and formal
placement of the figures and the use of only one myth
around the entire vase
Style
• This vase is still one of
the earliest as is shown
by the placement of the
eyes, they still hadn’t
quite figured out the
anatomy of a head.
Francois Vase Comparison
• The artist has more of an
idea of the way the legs
and arms work
• The body is more in
proportion with itself
• The turning of the figure
The maenad is wearing a
basic peplos with a skin of
some sort over the top, the
artist shows the textures
through a use of slip and
incising
Quic kT ime™ and a
dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pic ture.
looks more realistic
Drapery is now more
defined and detailed with
patterns on the bottom
and the plane of cloth
broken up with a coloured
fold painted with slip.