Athenian Black-figure Amphora: Dionysos with Satyrs and Maenads

This black-figure amphora is a late work of the greatest master of Athenian vase-painting, who was known equally as a master potter and as a vase painter. The central figure on the front side is Dionysos, holding a kantharos (two-handled drinking vessel) in one hand and an ivy branch in the other. Around him are his attendants: satyrs and maenads, one of the latter holding a snake in her lap. The back depicts a popular subject of vase painting at that time: a charioteer departing for battle, with an armed foot-soldier standing beside him. The scene is almost certainly mythological, since chariots were no longer used in battle by that period. The vase, with integrations made at the time, came to the Fejérváry-Pulszky collection from London in the 1830s.

János György Szilágyi