AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE KALYX KRATER, attributed to the Painter of London F64,

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AN ATTIC RED-FIGURE KALYX KRATER, attributed to the Painter of London F64,
Side A: showing Herakles in combat with the Cretan bull, the naked hero grasping the head of the animal which has reared up on its hind legs, Herakles' club, bow and quiver lie at his feet, while winged Nike hovers above holding a victory wreath over the hero's head, to either side eight spectators witness the struggle, including (on the right) the seated and bearded figure of King Minos who holds a sceptre in his left hand, Apollo, and Athena who sits wearing her characteristic crested helmet and holding a spear, together with (on the left) seated Poseidon holding a trident in his right hand, Hermes with his caduceus, and Europa(?), a seated female and male figure carrying spears above each handle
Side B: showing a central seated figure of Dionysos, the naked god wearing a fillet and holding a tall thyrsos in the crook of his right arm, he looks back towards a maenad who approaches bearing a dish laiden with food, flanking him are two satyrs, one of whom proffers a kantharos while holding an oinochoe in his right hand, a winged Eros hovers above, to the left stands another satyr with thyrsos who looks back towards the previous scene
both sides bordered by a frieze of palmettes below and a continuous band of laurel leaves and berries above, the lower body and foot with two ancient lead repairs, repaired with some restoration, late 5th Century B.C.
17¼in. (43.8cm.) high

Lot Essay

This krater depicts one of the Twelve Labours of Herakles, that of his combat with the Cretan bull. The Cretan bull, according to one version, was the beast that originally carried Europa from Palestine to Crete, where she bore King Minos. Another version records that the bull was the one which fathered the Minotaur on Pasiphae. In each case, the bull had been allowed to run wild until captured by Herakles who took it back to Mycenae to show Eurystheus (who imposed the Labours), whereupon it was released. The bull roamed over Greece and finally came to Marathon which it set about laying to waste and where it was eventually destroyed by Theseus.

For this subject's iconography, cf. B. B. Shefton, "Herakles and Theseus on a red-figured louterion", Hesperia, 3, 1962, pp. 344ff.; on the representations on the kraters at the end of the 5th Century B.C., cf. R. Volkommer, "Hérakles et le taureau; l'identification de la scène sur les vases attiques de la deuxième partie du Vème siècle, Bull. Corr. Hellén., 111, 1987, pp. 147ff.

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