Euphronios krater

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The Euphronios krater is an ancient Greek bowl used for mixing wine with water which was created around the year 515 BC. It is considered one of the finest Greek vases in existence. Of the surviving 27 vases painted by the renowned Euphronios, it is the only complete example. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, USA since 1972, ownership of the vase was returned to Italy under an agreement negotiated in February 2006.

Image:Euphronios death of sarpedon.jpg

Obverse side of the Euphronios krater depicting the death of Sarpedon

The Euphronios krater is a terracotta calyx-krater originally used for mixing wine with water. It stands 45.7 centimeters in height and has a diameter of 55.1 centimeters, capable of holding about 45 litres (12 gallons). The style of the vase is red-figure pottery, in which figure outlines, details, and the background are painted with an opaque black glaze while the figures themselves are left in the color of the unpainted terracotta ceramic clay. In the decorations of the Euphronios krater, diluted glaze was used by the artist to vary the color of foreground figures.

The krater is decorated with two scenes. An episode from the Trojan War is shown on the obverse; this illustration depicts the death of Sarpedon, son of Zeus and Laodamia. The reverse of the krater shows a contemporary scene of Athenian youths from the 6th century BC arming themselves before battle. In the scene of Sarpedon's death, the god Hermes directs Sleep and Death to carry the fallen away to his homeland for burial. While the subject of Sarpedon's death might normally be depicted as a stylized tableau, the figures in this scene are painted in naturalistic poses and with schematic but accurate anatomy. This style is emblematic of the Pioneer Group of late Archaic painters, of whom Euphronios is considered the most accomplished. The scene of the anonymous Greek youths on the reverse shares this naturalistic style, using all the Pioneer Group's characteristic techniques of anatomical accuracy, natural poses, foreshortening, and spatial illusion.

Reverse side of the Euphronios krater depicting Athenian youths arming themselves

Also characteristic of the Pioneer Group is the narrative tension created both by pairing these two scenes on the same piece, and by painting them in a common style. The death of Sarpedon, a quasi-mythological story which would be familiar to anyone viewing the krater, is an episode involving specific historical and mythological figures. The other scene, of the anonymous youths preparing for war, is both more general and explicitly contemporary. The young men are not heroes of legend; with their finely-detailed features, they are given personality and character, but they could be any of the youthful soldiers in the Greek army. The common style of painting makes the historical scene appear more contemporary, and the contemporary scene begins to share some of the other's mythological qualities. The two scenes invite comparison between the narratives they depict; certainly, the hero Sarpedon was no less youthful than these anonymous boys, and Death and Sleep may well come for them as they did for him.

The vase is signed both by Euxitheos as potter and Euphronios, as painter. While it was customary for the painter to sign the finished work, it was less common for the potter to add his own name. The presence of both signatures indicates that Euxitheos felt the vase to be one of his finest works. Besides the artists' signatures on the obverse side, it also carries the inscription "Leagros is handsome." on the reverse. This inscription has allowed art historians to date the krater to approximately 520-510 BC, because at this time Leagros was considered the handsomest man in Greece. All names are written in Attic letters.

[edit] Provenance and history

The krater was probably looted from an Etruscan tomb near Rome around 1971. It was sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Robert Hecht Jr., an American art-dealer living in Rome, for one million US dollars on November 10, 1972. Hecht claimed to have acquired the krater from Dikran Sarrafian, a Lebanese dealer whose family had been in possession of the artwork since 1920. However, even at the time of its purchase, suspicions about the krater's origins were already circulating. Thomas Hoving, director of the Met and the primary negotiator in the purchase, initially suspected that Hecht's story was false and went to great lengths to make sure that the vase was imported legally into the United States. Investigations into the origin of the piece carried out in the USA and Italy have produced evidence suggesting that Robert Hecht Jr may have purchased the krater in 1972 from Giacomo Medici, an Italian dealer who was convicted of selling stolen art in 2004. In 2006, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Italian government signed an agreement under which ownership of the Euphronios krater along with several other pieces of art is returned to Italy in exchange for loans of other Italian treasures.