If now we try to ascertain the painter of this vase, we find in Till-yard’s catalogue of the Hope Vases another bell-krater (no. The vase is roughly contemporary with the Parthenon sculptures, but vase-painting had run its course somewhat earlier than sculpture and in the tranquil days which preceded the Peloponnesian war vase-painters were walking the ways of pleasantness. The style of both pictures is competent and pleasant, but not in the grand manner of earlier days. On the field is painted a pair of jumping-weights to show that the conversation takes place in the palaistra. On the reverse (below) are three figures draped in himatia with their right shoulders bare. All three boys wear fillets in honor of the celebration to which they are going or, more probably, from which they are returning. The man on the left carries a staff his right hand is on his hip, his head slightly raised in the attitude in which singers are often depicted. The leader of the trio carries a torch to light the way. On the obverse (above) are three revellers, not frenzied by wild orgies after the manner of maenads and satyrs, but discreetly keeping step to the tune played by the flutist in the center. This date is confirmed by both the subject and style of the pictures. Kraters for mixing water and wine are known in every period of Greek vase-painting, but it is only just after the middle of the fifth century before Christ, in about 440, that this type of bell-krater with horizontal handles and simple foot was in vogue. Plate VII - Bell-Krater by the Christie Painter, Obverse
The vase is preserved intact, without a crack, but the black glaze which serves as ground for the design has suffered here and there some small damage. He has very generously lent the vase to the Museum, where, since it was put on exhibition in the Sharpe Gallery, it has attracted the interest of art students and archaeologists, as well as of the casual visitor. SOME years ago Professor Alfred Mansfield Brooks of Swarthmore College had the good fortune to discover in the public market of Canterbury, England, the red-figured vase shown in Plate VII.
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