The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Black ceramic with orange detailing bell-krater, a mixing vessel like a pot with two horizontal handles. Central, a bust of Dionysus dominates the scene, looking to our right with narrow band of cloth running over a laurel wreath in his curly, dark hair. Grapevines dangle above, a person on the left stretching for a bundle. A person on our right, white hair and full-body suit the scene's only white, squats holding a pot-like vessel.

Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Bust of Dionysos and Comic Actors (A); Dionysos, Satyr, Maenad (B)

c. 390–380 BCE

attributed to Choregos Painter

(South Italian, Apulian, active c. 390–380 BCE)
South Italian, Apulian
ceramic
Overall: 38 cm (14 15/16 in.); Diameter of rim: 40.3 cm (15 7/8 in.); Diameter of foot: 18.4 cm (7 1/4 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1989.73
Location: 102D Pre-Roman

Did You Know?

The large bust of Dionysos may represent a stage prop or symbolize the multifaceted god.

Description

Dionysos, the god of wine, theater, and the mysteries, dominates both sides of this bell-krater, a vessel for mixing water and wine. On the front, he appears in bust form, wearing a fillet and laurel wreath. Over his shoulder and behind his head rests his thyrsos, sprouting grapevines. Comic actors, identifiable by their masks and padded costumes, flank the colossal bust, stretching for a bunch of grapes on the left and holding a large skyphos (wine cup) on the right. On the reverse, Dionysos marches in procession with his retinue, a satyr and maenad.
  • 1989-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1002927 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 8 archive.org
    Turner, Evan H., et al. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147. p. 73 (entry by A. Kozloff). 25161319
    "Recent Acquisitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art 1: Departments of Western Art: Supplement." The Burlington Magazine 133, no. 1054 (1991). pp. 63-68 www.jstor.org
    Trendall, A. D., Alexander Cambitoglou, and A. D. Trendall. Second Supplement to The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia. London: University of London, Institute of Classical Studies, 1991. Postscript 495, no. 1/125
    Trendall, Dale. "A New Early Apulian Phlyax Vase." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 1 (1992). pp. 2-15, cover 25161344
    Taplin, O. 1994. "The Beauty of the Ugly: Reflections of Comedy in the Fleischman Collection," in A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman (Malibu, Calif: J. Paul Getty Museum in association with the Cleveland Museum of Art): 15-27. See p. 25, Fig. 5.
    Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. p. 50-51, pl. 92-93
    Easterling, P. E., and Edith Hall. Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. vii
    Hart, Mary Louise, and J. Michael Walton. The Art of Ancient Greek Theater. Los Angeles, Calif: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010. Cat. no. 3, pp. 16-17, 107, no. 3
    Heuer, Keely Elizabeth. 2015. "Vases with Faces: Isolated Heads in South Italian Vase Painting." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 50: 63-91. See p. 84, n. 69. www.jstor.org
    Trendall, A. D. Myth, Drama and Style in South Italian Vase-Painting: Selected Papers. Uppsala : Åströms förlag,2016. Reproduced: P. 113, fig. 1, 2; p. 115, fig. 3; P. 116-117, fig. 6, 7, 11
    Todisco, Luigi. “Noterella sul Cratere Cleveland, Museum of Art,1989.73.” Archeologia Classica 70 (2019): 567–74 www.jstor.org
  • The Art of Ancient Greek Theater. Getty Villa, Pacific Palisades, CA (August 26, 2010-January 3, 2011).
    Notable Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).
  • {{cite web|title=Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Bust of Dionysos and Comic Actors (A); Dionysos, Satyr, Maenad (B)|url=false|author=Choregos Painter|year=c. 390–380 BCE|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1989.73