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Volute Krater with Dionysus in the Underworld

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Volute Krater with Dionysus in the Underworld

Place of OriginItaly, Apulia
Dateabout 330 BCE
DimensionsH (max) 36 1/2 × H (to rim) 30 3/4 × W (max) 21 7/8 × Diam (shoulder) 19 3/8 × Diam (rim) 17 7/8 × Diam (base) 9 1/2 in. (92.7 × 78.1 × 55.6 × 49.2 × 45.4 × 24.1 cm).
MediumRed-figure, wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware.
ClassificationCeramics
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey, Florence Scott Libbey, and the Egypt Exploration Society, by exchange
Object number
1994.19
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
Collections
  • Decorative Arts
Published ReferencesLexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, (LIMC), Zürich, 1981-1999, vol. VII, pt. 1, p. 26, no. 1, p. 315, no. 70, p. 348, no. 1; repr. vol. VII, pt. 2, p. 265, 310; vol. VIII, pt. 1, p. 501, no. 1, p. 792 (e), p. 876, no. 23.

Trendall, A. D., and Alexander Cambitoglou, “Second Supplement to The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia: Part III,” Bulletin Supplement (University of London. Institute of Classical Studies), no. 60, 1992, p. 508, no. 41a1.

Padgett, Michael J., Vase Painting in Italy: Red-Figure & Related Works in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1993, 114, under no. 41.

Moret, Jean-Marc, "Les Départs des Enfers dans L'Imagerie Apulienne," Revue Archéologique, II, 1993.

Graf, Fritz, “Dionysian and Orphic eschatology: New texts and old questions,” in T. H. Carpenter and C. A. Faraone (eds.), Masks of Dionysus, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1993, p. 256.

"La chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. CXXV, no. 1514, March, 1995, repr. p. 33, no. 133.

"Up front: Toledo acquires ancient Greek vase," Ceramics Monthly, vol. 43, no. 7, Sept. 1995, p. 16, repr. p. 18.

Schauenburg, Konrad, “Diesseits und Jenseits in der italischen Grabkunst,” Jahreshefte des Österreichischen Archäologischen Instituts, vol. 64, 1995, pp. 35-37.

Johnston, Sarah Iles and Timothy J. McNiven, "Dionysos and the underworld in Toledo," Museum Helvecticum, Jagr. 53, 1996, pp. 25-36.

Gavrilaki, Ioanna, and Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos, “An ‘Orphic–Dionysiac’ gold epistomion from Sfakaki near Rethymno,” Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, vol. 122, 1998, 343–355.

Southgate, M. Therese, "The cover," JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 283, no. 4, Jan. 26, 2000, p. 437, repr. on cover (col.).

Schmidt, Margot, “Aufbruch oder Verharren in der Unterwelt? Nochmals zu den apulischen Vasenbildern mit Darstellungen des Hades,” Antike Kunst, vol. 43, 2000, pp. 96-97.

Berkowitz, Roger M., "Selected acquisitions made by the Toledo Museum of Art, 1990-2001," Burlington, vol. 143, no. 1177, April 2001, p. 259, fig. VI (col.).

Avagianou, Aphrodite A., Latreies sten "Periphereia" tou archaiou Hellenikou Kosmou, Athens, Ethniko Hidryma Ereunon, 2002, p. 93-95, figs. 12 and 13 (col.).

Tzifopoulos, Yannis Z., “Λατρείες στην Κρήτη: η περίπτωση των ορφικο-διονυσιακών ελασμάτων,” in A. A. Avagianou (ed.), Λατρείες στην ‘Περιφέρεια’ του Αρχαίου Ελληνικού Κόσμου, Athens, 2002, 147–171.

Gadaleta, Giusepina, Carmela Roscino, and Mary Anne Sisto, “Catalogo dei Vasi. Vasi Lucani,” in Luigi Todisco, ed., La Ceramica Figurata a Soggetto Tragico in Magna Grecia e in Sicilia, Roma, Bretschneider, 2003, p. 45, pl. 157.

Johnston, Sarah Iles, ed., Religions of ancient world: a guide, Cambridge, MA, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004, p. 102, repr. (col.) 9th color plate.

Slater, William J., “Life as a Party: A Pindaric Look at Dionysus in the Underworld,” Mediterranean Archaeology, vol. 17, 2004, pp. 223–229.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: map and guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 10, repr. (col.).

Kefalidou, Euthymia, “Καταβάσεις και άνοδοι του Διονύσου. Παρατηρήσεις στην αττική και κατωιταλιωτική αγγειογραφία,” Eulimene, vols. 6–7, 2005–6, 13–44.

Dorr, Erin, "Fragments of a lost culture," Perspectives, [Ohio University], vol. 10, no. 1, Spring-Summer 2006, side A, repr. p. 20 (det. col.), side B, repr. p. 19 (col.).

Torjussen, Stian Sundell, “Dionysos in the Underworld. An Interpretation of the Toledo Krater,” Nordlit, no. 20 (June 2006): 85-101.

Leventi, Iphigeneia, "The Mondragone Relief revisited: Eleusinian cult iconography in Campania", Hesperia, vol. 76 no. 1, Jan-Mar. 2007, p. 132-2, n93-95, fig.18.

Sundell Torjussen, Stian, Metamorphoses of Myth: A Study of the "Orphic" Gold Tablets and the Derveni Papyrus, PhD diss., University of Tromsø, 2008, pp. 187–195.

Grimm, Günter, Heroen, Götter, Scharlatane: Heilserwartungen and Heilsbringer der Antike, Mainz, Philipp von Zabern, 2008, p. 17, 18, 102n4, Abb. 4 (det., col.).

Carpenter, Thomas H., "Prolegomenon to the Study of Apulian Red-Figure Pottery," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 113, no. 1, January 2009, p. 36, fig. 6.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 75, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 9, repr. (col.)

Morard, Thomas, Horizontalité et verticalité: Le bandeau humain et le bandeau divin chez le Peintre de Darius, Mainz, von Zabern, 2009, pp. 125–126, nos. 15, 16.

Cambitoglou, Alexander, “Three Apulian Vases in the National Museum in Naples Representing Adonis and Persephone,” ASAtene, vol. 87, 2009, p. 546.

Carpenter, Thomas, "Gods in Apulia", in Jan N. Bremmer and Andrew Erskine, eds., The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2010, pp. 346-7, fig. 16.5 p. 347.

Kefalidou, Eurydice, “Dionysian Iconography in Ancient Greek Vase Painting,” in Polyxeni Adam-Veleni, Eurydice Kefalidou, and Evangelia Stefani (eds.), Το Δώρο του Διονύσου / Il Dono di Dioniso / The Gift of Dionysos. Το Δώρο του Διονύσου: Μυθολογία του Κρασιού στην Κεντρική Ιταλία (Molise) και τη Βόρεια Ελλάδα (Μακεδονία), Thessaloniki, Publications of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, no. 8, Ζήτη Publications, 2011, ISBN 978-960-89388-9-2, p. 240, n. 38.

Bernabé, Alberto, and Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal, “Are the ‘Orphic’ Gold Leaves Orphic?” in Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, ed., The "Orphic" Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 68–102.

Tzifopoulos, Yannis Z., “Center, Periphery, or Peripheral Center,” in Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, ed., The 'Orphic' Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 176, n. 35.

Graf, Fritz, “Text and Ritual: The Corpus Eschatologicum of the Orphics,” in Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, ed., The 'Orphic' Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, p. 59.

Mirto, Maria Serena, trans. by A.M. Osborne, Death in the Greek World: From Homer to the Classical Age, Norman, Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma Press, 2012, pp. 36, repr. fig. 1, p. 37.

Todisco, Luigi, “I culti della Campania antica: I culti non greci in epoca sannitica e romana,” in G. Pugliese Carratelli, ed., Storia e Civiltà della Campania. L'Evo Antico, vol. 2, Naples, Electa Napoli, 2012, pp. 316–317.

Carpenter, Thomas H., “Some Observations on Apulian Vase-Inscriptions with a Particular Focus on the Darius Painter,” in Dimitrios Yatromanolakis, ed., Epigraphy of Art: Ancient Greek Vase-Inscriptions and Vase-Paintings, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2016, pp. 138, fig. 4.

Carter, Joseph Coleman, The Chora of Metaponto 7, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2018, pp. 1507-1508, fig. 54.18.

Sekita, Karolina, “Orphica Non Grata? Underworld Palace Scenes on Apulian Red-Figure Pottery Revisited,” in Rui Morais, Delfim Leão, and Diana Rodríguez Pérez, eds., Greek Art in Motion: Studies in Honour of Sir John Boardman on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2019, p. 467 (or 497?), fig. 2.

di Franco, Luca, “Una statua medio ellenistica da Taranto: iconografia, modelli e diffusione del Dioniso tipo Hope e di Artemis Bendis,” ASAtene, vol. 98, 2020, pp. 331-332, fig. 18.

Rawson, Rebecca, Private Initiation and the Afterlife in Classical Greece, PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 2020, pp. 182-185.

Saunders, David, et al., Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife in Ancient South Italian Vase Painting, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2021, pp. 25-26, 96-97, 151-154, cat no. 16.

Herrero de Jáuregui, Miguel, “Political Imagery in Ancient Greek Eschatology,” in Irmgard Männlein-Robert, ed., Seelenreise und Katabasis: Einblicke ins Jenseits in antiker philosophischer Literatur, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2021, p. 84, fig. 2.

Heuer, Keely Elizabeth, “Face to Face: Isolated Heads in South Italian and Etruscan Visual Culture,” in Jeremy Armstrong and Aaron Rhodes-Schroder, eds., Adoption, Adaption, and Innovation in Pre-Roman Italy: Paradigms for Cultural Change, Turnhout, Brepols, 2023.

Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, Underworld: Imagining the Afterlife,Oct. 31, 2018-Mar. 18, 2019.Comparative ReferencesSee also Mayo, M.E., et al. The Art of South Italy, Vases from Magna Graecia, Richmond, The Virgina Museum of Fine Arts exhibition catalogue, 1982, pp. 79ff.

See also Aellen, C., A. Cambitoglou, and J. Chamay, Le Peintre de Darius et son Milieu, Vases grecs d'Italio méridionale, Genéva, l'Association Hellas et Roma IV, 1986, esp. chapt. 3, pp. 111-175.

Label TextThis krater features the only known ancient depiction of Dionysos, god of wine and rebirth, in the Underworld. In the central scene, Hades and Persephone, rulers of the dead, shake hands with Dionysos, while a goat-legged boy leads Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the Underworld’s entrance. This handshake may symbolize an agreement between Dionysos and the rulers of the Underworld, ensuring a blessed afterlife for his initiates—those who participated in his mystery cults and ritual practices that promised salvation. On the left, followers of Dionysos participate in a lively celebration. Persis, a maenad, wears a panther skin and holds a torch and thyrsos, while Oinops, a satyr, carries a drinking horn. A second maenad dances, playing a tambourine. On the right, figures who offended Dionysos appear somber. Pentheus was torn apart in a ritual; Aktaion was transformed into a stag; Agave, Dionysos’s aunt, denied his divine parentage. Hermes, who guides souls to the afterlife, stands nearby, linking the living and the dead. On the reverse, a nude youth, likely representing the deceased, stands in a naiskos (tomb shrine) surrounded by mourners.
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