Oil Jar Fragment With a Pappsilenos in the Getty Villa, July 2008

Title: Fragment of an Apulian Squat Lekythos

Artist/Maker: Attributed to the Workshop of the Darius Painter (Greek (South Italian, Apulian), active 350 - 325 B.C.)

Culture: Greek (South Italian, Apulian)

Place: Apulia, South Italy (Place created)

Date: 350–325 B.C.

Medium: Terracotta

Object Number: 86.AE.399

Dimensions: 14.7 × 12.3 cm (5 13/16 × 4 13/16 in.)

Alternate Titles: Fragment of an Oil Jar with an Actor Dressed as Silenos (Display Title)

Previous Attribution: Painter Lentini Group

Object Type: Lekythos

A silenos, or old satyr, a part-human, part-animal creature, reclines and plays the double flutes on this vase fragment. Companions of Dionysos, the god of wine, satyrs lived in a world of hedonistic pleasure. This silenos entertains himself by resting on a full wineskin. His white beard and tail, as well as the tufts of white hair covering his body, convey his advanced age. A small piece of a comic mask is visible just along the break on the upper left side of the fragment. This scene pokes fun at a popular contemporary scene on vases, that of Dionysos reclining on a couch at a banquet with a comic mask hanging in the background. Here the satyr mimics his master. This fragment comes from a squat lekythos, an oil vessel. The vase displays the lavish use of color favored by artists and their customers in the Greek colonies in Italy. This vase combines the red-figure technique used for the main design with the Gnathia technique of added color for the pattern work, a combination frequently used on small vases produced by the Workshop of the Darius Painter.

Text from: www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/12250/attributed-to-the-workshop-of-the-darius-painter-fragment-of-an-apulian-squat-lekythos-greek-south-italian-apulian-350-325-bc