id: 149405 accession number: 1978.59 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1978.59 updated: 2023-03-11 20:51:10.300000 Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Athena Slaying Giant (body); Satyr between Maenads (shoulder), c. 490 BC. Shoulder attributed to Berlin Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 505–460 BC), body attributed to Painter of Goluchow 37 (Greek, Attic, active c. 490–460 BC). Ceramic; diameter: 14.1 cm (5 9/16 in.); diameter of mouth: 8.7 cm (3 7/16 in.); overall: 38 cm (14 15/16 in.); diameter of foot: 10 cm (3 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1978.59 title: Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Athena Slaying Giant (body); Satyr between Maenads (shoulder) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 490 BC creation date earliest: -495 creation date latest: -485 current location: 102B Greek creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: Greek, Attic technique: ceramic department: Greek and Roman Art collection: GR - Greek type: Ceramic find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Berlin Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 505–460 BC) Attic vase painter, active ca. 500-ca. 460 BCE * Painter of Goluchow 37 (Greek, Attic, active c. 490–460 BC) Attic vase painter, active ca. 500-480 BCE --- measurements: Diameter: 14.1 cm (5 9/16 in.); Diameter of mouth: 8.7 cm (3 7/16 in.); Overall: 38 cm (14 15/16 in.); Diameter of foot: 10 cm (3 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1978 opening date: 1979-02-13T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1978. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13-March 18, 1979). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Greek Vase Painting in Midwestern Collections, Art Institute of Chicago, (22 December 1980-24 February 1981). * The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (29 June-5 September 1982). * Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (11 May-1 August 1993); Art Museum, Princeton University, (31 August-28 November 1993). --- PROVENANCE The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1978- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: First attributed to Douris, this vase is now thought to have been painted by two anonymous painters. digital description: The two separate areas of figural decoration on this vase have been attributed to different painters: the small satyr and maenads on the shoulder to the Berlin Painter; and the larger figures of Athena and the slain Giant Enkelados on the body to the Painter of Goluchow 37. Scholars have named these two painters, whose actual names remain unknown, after other vases they have painted, now in Berlin and Warsaw. The victory of Athena and the Olympian gods over the Giants has been interpreted as a metaphor for the Greek victory over the Persians around the time this vase was made. Thus, although Enkelados appears as a fully armed warrior, he falls in utter and complete defeat—bleeding from multiple wounds, eyes rolling back, sword dropping from his hand. wall description: Douris was a most versatile painter, creating scenes of great delicacy, as on the Atalanta lekythos (1966.114), and scenes of great power, as here. In the mythological War of the Gods and Giants (Gigantomachy), Athena slays the giant Enkelados with her spear. He reels backward, his eyes rolling skyward. The giant's broken spear is a beautiful compositional bridge between the two figures. This scene may depict the victory of the Greeks (represented by Athena) over the Persians (represented by the Giant) at Marathon in 490 BC. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. page number: BAPD 5168 url: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/686058FE-F50E-4CC4-B4B4-FBF12121EC75 Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. page number: pp. 33-35, fig. 4, pls. 1816-1817, 70.2-3, 71.1-3 url: Moon, Warren G., and Louise Berge. Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. Chicago: Art Institute, 1979. page number: Pl. 6, p. 186, no. 105. url: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0045%3Aentry%3D105 Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC). Zürich: Artemis, 1981. page number: Pl. 147 url: McNiven, Timothy John. Gestures in Attic Vase Painting: Use and Meaning, 550-450 B.C. 1982. page number: p. 155, pl. 5d url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 15, fig. 17 url: International Congress of Classical Archaeology. Praktika tou XII Diethnous Synedriou Klasikēs Archaiologias: Athēna, 4-10 Septembriou 1983. Athēna: Hypourgeio Politismou kai Epistēmōn, 1985. page number: VOL.B, PL.24.2 url: Korshak, Yvonne. Frontal Faces in Attic Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1987. page number: pp. 38-39, 144, fig. 95 url: J. Paul Getty Museum. Greek vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Vol. 4. Vol. 4. Malibu, Calif: The Museum, 1989. page number: p. 120, figs. 2A-B url: Arafat, K. W. Classical Zeus: A Study in Art and Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. page number: p. 184, no. I.28, 205 url: Neils, Jenifer. Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens : [Exhibition]. Hanover, N.H.: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 1992. page number: p. 147, no. 4 url: Buitron-Oliver, Diana. Douris: A Master-Painter of Athenian Red-Figure Vases. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern, 1995. page number: p. 65, n. 464 url: Bol, Peter, and Marianne Kreikenbom. Zum Verhältnis von Raum und Zeit in der griechischen Kunst: Passavant-Symposion, 8. bis 10. Dezember 2000. Möhnesee: Bibliopolis, 2003. page number: pl. 54, fig. 108 url: International Union of Academies. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. United States of America Fasc. 35 United States of America Fasc. 35. München: Beck, 2000. page number: p. 33, pl. 70.2-3, 71.1-3, fig. 4 url: Woodard, Roger D. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology. 2007. page number: fig. 11 url: Muth, Susanne. Gewalt im Bild: das Phänomen der medialen Gewalt im Athen des 6. und 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. page number: p. 297, fig. 196 url: Bark, Julianna M. "Liotard, History Painting, and Mimesis," Cantor Arts Center Journal vol. 6 (2008- 2009). page number: pp. 19-26, fig. 5 url: Guy, Robert J. "In the Shadow of the Berlin Painter." In The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C. J. Michael Padgett,J ed., 188-211. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, Connecticut: Distributed by Yale University Press, 2017. page number: Reproduced: P. 190-191, fig. 1-3; Mention: P. 194, 199, 203 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.59/1978.59_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.59/1978.59_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1978.59/1978.59_full.tif