Column Krater (Mixing Vessel) with Boar Hunt and Wedding Procession

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Column Krater (Mixing Vessel) with Boar Hunt and Wedding Procession

Artist Unidentified, Gorgoneion Group

Place of OriginCorinth, Greece

Dateabout 560 BCE

DimensionsH. 13 13/16 × W. (max) 16 1/4 × Diam. rim 12 3/8 × Diam. base 6 15/16 × Diam. body 14 9/16 in. (35.1 × 41.3 × 31.5 × 17.6 × 37 cm)

MediumEarthenware / terracotta, black-figure technique with added red and incised details .

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1970.2

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionLarge Corinthian mixing vessel with two figural friezes: a boar hunt and a wedding procession. Decorated with incised details, added red for emphasis, and bands of black and red glaze. Features griffins and sirens on handle plates and a lower frieze of roosters, deer, and goats. The main decorative scheme includes two narrative friezes encircling the vessel’s body. The upper frieze on Side A depicts a vivid boar hunt, showing a charging boar at the center, attacked by hunters armed with spears. The composition is dynamic, with details like blood dripping from the boar and a fallen hunter beneath it. Added red accents emphasize elements such as the hunters’ cloaks, the boar’s wounds, and the hounds. The hunters are shown in varying postures, some nude and others wearing short cloaks, creating a sense of action and tension. The upper frieze on Side B portrays a wedding procession, where a bride and groom ride in a four-horse chariot, surrounded by attendants. Figures are dressed in finely detailed chitons and himatia, with added red highlighting their garments. Snakes and birds are interspersed among the figures, and the procession’s formal arrangement contrasts with the chaotic energy of the hunt. Below the narrative scenes is a continuous lower frieze of animals, featuring roosters, deer, and goats in a rhythmic, repeating pattern. The decorative details continue onto the handles and plates, where siren figures with outstretched wings and griffins add a mythological touch. The krater’s rim and foot are adorned with zigzag and banded patterns, combining black glaze and red accents.

Label TextGushing blood, fallen hunters, and attacking dogs combine to create a vivid and lively picture which transports the observer to the scene of an ancient boar hunt. Innovative for this time period, the artist portrays a narrative through displaying a snapshot of one stationary scene in the drama. Soon this approach would become the standard convention for vase decoration. One possible myth associated with the scene is the Calydonian boar hunt, in which the goddess Artemis sends a monstrous boar to ravage Calydon in Aetolia for failing to honor her properly. The beast was eventually hunted and offered to Artemis as an apology.Published ReferencesLuckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, p. 71, figs. 13-14.

Brommer, F. Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, vol. 3, 1973, p. 311, no. c-5.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, p. 10, no. 2.

Ebertshäuser, H.H. and M. Waltz, Antiken I, Vasen-Bronzen-Terrakotten des klassischen Altertums, Munich, 1981, p. 61, figs. 73-74.

Boulter, Cederic G. and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Toledo Museum of Art fasc. 2, U.S.A. fasc. 20, Mainz, 1984, pls. 77, 78, 79.

Amyx, Darrell Arlynn, Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, p. 163.

Shapiro, Harvey Alan, “Old and New Heroes: Narrative, Composition, and Subject in Attic Black-Figure,” Classical Antiquity, vol. 9, no. 1, April 1990, pp. 119 [as securely identified Calydonian hunt].

Barringer, Judith M., "Atlanta as model: the hunter and the hunter," Classical Antiquity, vol. 15, no. 1, April 1996, p. 56, fig. 4 a-b.

Barringer, Judith M., The Hunt in Ancient Greece, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, p. 249, n. 130.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 68, repr. (col.).

Albersmeier, Sabine, ed., Heroes! Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, Baltimore, MD, Walters Art Gallery, 2009, no. 99, repr. (col.) p. 295.

Exhibition HistoryBaltimore, Walters Art Museum; Nashville, Frist Center for the Visual Arts; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art; New York, Onassis Center, Heroes! Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, October 11, 2009 – January 3, 2011.