The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Red-Figure Bell Krater (Mixing Vessel): Aphrodite and Eros

Red-Figure Bell Krater (Mixing Vessel): Aphrodite and Eros

c. 370–360 BCE

attributed to Graz Painter

(South Italian, Apulian, active c. 380–360 BCE)
South Italian, Apulian
ceramic
Overall: 30.5 cm (12 in.)
Gift of J. H. Wade 1924.534
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The dancing nude youths on the reverse are unusual; typically they would be standing and draped.

Description

This small mixing vessel shows a finely dressed woman seated on a chest and holding up a mirror to admire herself. Before her stands Eros, the winged god of love, holding a ribbon or sash. Behind the woman stands a pillar with the inscription ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗ, or APHRODITE, the goddess of love. Such labels are rare on vases, and scholars debate whether this names the woman shown as Aphrodite herself, with her son Eros, or a bride envisioning herself as Aphrodite, just before her wedding.
  • ?-1924
    Ludwig Pollak, Rome, Italy, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1924-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1001472 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    "A note on Greek Design: Recent Accessions of Pottery." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 11, no. 10. (December 1924): 198-199 Mentioned: p. 199; Reproduced: p. 200
    Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 27, Plate 43 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Trendall, A. D., and Alexander Cambitoglou. The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978. p. 161, no. 6/216
    Powell, Barry B. Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. p. 122, Fig. 5.4
    Todisco, Luigi, and Giuseppina Gadaleta. La ceramica a figure rosse della Magna Grecia e della Sicilia. Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2012. p. 380, No. 3
    Gaifman, Milette. Aniconism in Greek Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. pp. 260-61, fig. 6.12-6.13
  • Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).
    Mirrors: Art and Symbol. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 3-November 18, 1984).
    Science within Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-April 20, 1980).
  • {{cite web|title=Red-Figure Bell Krater (Mixing Vessel): Aphrodite and Eros|url=false|author=Graz Painter|year=c. 370–360 BCE|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.534