Stamnos

Greek vases were made for use, but they were also prized for their refined shapes and adornment. This type of vase, the stamnos, was used to hold and mix wine. This example is decorated in the red-figure technique, so called because the figures have been left in the natural reddish-orange color of the clay and surrounded by black glaze.
The scenes on both sides of this vase depict preparations for a festival in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. It is uncertain whether the three stately figures on one side, shown participating in rites honoring Dionysos, are Greek women or maenads, female followers of the wine god. The subject at left holds up a stamnos, the same shape as this vessel, which the woman at center prepares to wreathe. They stand before a table on which sits an apple and a kantharos, or wine cup. Another female, her head wreathed in ivy, looks on from the right. Her proper left arm is covered by her himation, or mantle, and she holds a thyrsos, the Dionysian ritual staff.
This tender serenity, coupled with a softer, somewhat freer form, is a hallmark of the artist (referred to as the Chicago Painter because of this vase) and has been used to identify other works by him, principally similar stamnoi. Working in the potters’ quarter of Periclean Athens, the painter was active during the construction of the Parthenon, the stylistic influence of which is visible here. In keeping with the style of contemporary sculpture and perhaps also wall painting, which was less frenetic than the previous late Archaic style, the Chicago Painter’s pensive subjects refrain from engaging their companions and instead impassively focus on their individual activities.