handmade ceramic Corinthian krater - CORV058COD91

Handmade Corinthian ceramic krater decorated with overlapping belts with animals, birds and plant jewelry.

Corinthian pottery of the 7th and early 6th centuries BC is noted for its rich ochre colouring and its depiction of mythical or actual animals and birds.

In this particular vase we see wild boar.

A krater or crater (Greek: κρατήρ, kratēr, literally "mixing vessel") was a large vase in Ancient Greece, used for the dilution of wine with water.

The most important pottery workshop during the 7th century BC. It was that of Corinth, both in terms of the innovations and ingenuity it displayed, and in terms of the spread of its vessels, and therefore the influence it exerted on the other centers.

In Corinth the transition from geometric to oriental patterns took place very early, apparently because the city had developed commercial activities and a great familiarity with eastern crafts.

The predominance of naturalistic tendencies found fertile ground in the cultivated sense of miniature precision of the Corinthian angiographers.

The technique that allowed the decoration of small vessels - such as the spherical aryvals and the acorns - was an invention of the Corinthian angiographers and was called the black-figure technique.

In this form it was designed as a silhouette, but before baking the details were carved with a sharp tool while removing a thin strip of varnish.

Production in Corinthian Ceramics is divided into two major periods with several subcategories.

Each period lasted about a century: the First Corinthian period from 720 to 625 BC. and the Corinthian from 625 to 535 BC

Apart from the chamois, you can find dogs, lions, sphinxes, griffins, hares and more rarely wild boars, rams and foxes. Human forms are extremely rare.

Geometric jewelry, such as the chessboard, is preserved from the previous decorative tradition, but new ones are also introduced, such as the radial at the base of the vases and the current spiral in various zones.

At the average rate I, the oinochoe is adopted with a wide mouth and a low spherical body, about 30 cm high, but later the clover-shaped one prevails.

Rare shapes are the disc with a high conical foot, the crater and the cup in the shape of the sub-geometric goblet with birds.

The forms are found on the shoulder and in the abdomen of the vessel and more rarely, in the first type of winemaker, and on the neck.

The fauna is growing: outside the chamois, deer with spotted skin, bulls, panthers and mainly geese are now appearing.

The swallow also plays a complementary role.

The survival of the hypogeometric influences is observed in the decorative motifs.