ATTRIBUTED TO THE ALKIMACHOS PAINTER, CIRCA 470-460 B.C.

This vase is a fine example attributed to ‘The Alkimachos Painter’, an Athenian red-figure vase painter named by J. D. Beazley due to the ‘kalos’ inscriptions of this name on vases in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich (inv. no. 2325) and in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1867,0508.1055). On one side, Dionysos is depicted wearing a chiton, himation and fillet, holding a thyrsos and ivy branch in one hand and a kantharos extended outward in the other. On the other side is a bearded satyr in a himation with a wreath in added red. At times influenced by the Pan Painter, the Alkimachos Painter decorated several vase shapes, but most prolifically small amphorae such as the Nolan, as demonstrated here. For the artist, see J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase Painters, pp. 529-533.