A large ceramic bell krater with pedestal base, bell-shaped body, square handles and broad everted rim; the rim with a band of vine-leaves to the underside of the exterior; the body with two figural scenes separated by painted palmettes beneath the handles, running scroll beneath; Side A: a bare-chested male seated on a stool with white garland to the brow, neck and shoulder, white armring and bracelets, right hand extended towards a standing female with stephane and mantle to the left shoulder and arm holding a necklace in the left hand, frond in the right facing a second standing female with fan and frond; Side B: two males in loosely draped robes facing a female with one leg raised.

PROVENANCE:
From the estate of a deceased north country collector; acquired over a 30 year period from the early 1970s.

PUBLISHED:
Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate.

FOOTNOTES:
South Italian vases are ceramics, mostly decorated in the red-figure technique, that were produced by Greek colonists in southern Italy and Sicily, the region often referred to as Magna Graecia. South Italian
vases are divided into five wares named after the regions in which they were produced: Lucanian, Apulian, Campanian, Paestan, and Sicilian. South Italian wares, unlike Attic, were not widely exported and seem to have been intended solely for local consumption. Each fabric has its own distinct features, including preferences in shape and decoration that make them identifiable, even when exact provenance is unknown. Campanian vases were produced by Greeks in the cities of Capua and Cumae, which were settled by Greek colonists fleeing political unrest in the Sicilian city of Syracuse; both cities however remained under native control. Capua was an Etruscan foundation that passed into the hands of Samnites in 426 B.C. Cumae, one of the earliest of the Greek colonies in Magna Graecia, was founded on the Bay of Naples by Euboeans no later than 730–720 BC It, too, was captured by native Campanians in 421 BC, but Greek laws and customs were retained. The workshops of Cumae were founded slightly later than those of Capua, around the middle of the fourth century BC.
The range of subjects is relatively limited, the most characteristic being representations of women and warriors in native Osco-Samnite dress. The armor consists of a three-disk breastplate and helmet with a tall vertical feather on both sides of the head. Local dress for women consists of a short cape over the garment and a headdress of draped fabric, rather medieval in appearance. The figures participate in libations for departing or returning warriors as well as in funerary rites. These representations are comparable to those found in painted tombs of the region as well as at Paestum.