Stamnos (Mixing Jar)

CC0 Public Domain Designation

about 450 BCE

Attributed to the Chicago Painter
Greek; Athens

This refined Athenian stamnos (pl. stamnoi) was used to mix water and wine. Also valued for its beauty, this red-figure vessel (so called because the figures remain the natural color of the clay) portrays either Greek women or maenads, female participants in rites celebrating Dionysos, the god of wine. But unlike the frenzied and whirling figures of other Greek vases, these women convey calm, even elegance. 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 mid-fifth-century BC Athens, the painter was active during the construction of the Parthenon, the stylistic influence of which can be seen here. He worked closely with a master potter whose vases were individually shaped in a prescribed range of configurations. With refined designs that are gracefully adapted to its shape, this stamnos is a fine example of red-figure painting during the Classical era. It retains its original lid, a rarity among ancient vases.

Status: On View, Gallery 151
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Artist: Chicago Painter (Painter)
Title: Stamnos (Mixing Jar)
Place: Athens (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 450 BCE
Medium: terracotta, red-figure
Dimensions: 37 × 26 cm (14 5/8 × 10 1/4 in.); Diam.: 26 cm (10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Philip D. Armour and Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1889.22a-b
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/177/manifest.json

William M.R. French, Notes [on a] journey to Europe with Mr. and Mrs. C.L. Hutchinson starting from New York Sat’y Mch. 9, 1889- , (unpublished manuscript, Art Institute of Chicago Archives), p. 23.
Art Institute of Chicago, Preliminary Catalogue of Metal Work, Graeco-Italian Vases, and Antiquities, December 9, 1889 (Chicago: Early and Halla Printing Company, 1889), p. 40, no. 335.
A. Frickenhausen, Lenäenvasen (Berlin 1912), pp. 13-14 and 38 no. 5, pl. 4.
Alfred Emerson, “Vase Paintings by the Master of the Rustic Dionysia,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 9 (1915), pp. 52-53.
J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figured Vases in American Museums (Harvard University Press, 1918), p. 155.
Joseph Clark Hoppin, A Handbook of Attic Red-Figured Vases, vol. I (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1919), p. 193, no. 3.
Mary Herford, A Handbook of Greek Vase Painting (Manchester: The University Press; New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1919), p. 36, pl. 1d.
Betty Grossman, “Greek Vase by the Chicago Painter,” in Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St. Louis, vol. 40, no. 1/2 (1955), p. 20.
J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 628, no. 4.
Barbara Philippak, The Attic Stamnos, Oxford Monographs on Classical Archaeology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 111-2, fig. 15.
L. Berge, “Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 73, no. 5/6 (September-December 1979), pp. 10-11 (ill.).
J.-L. Durand and F. Frontisi-Ducroux, “Idoles, Figures, Images: Autour de Dionysos,” Revue Archeologique (1982), p. 101 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Pocketguide to the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1988), p. 9 (ill.).
Francoise Frontisi-Ducroux, Le Dieu-Masque: Une Figure du Dionysos d’Athenes, Editions La Decouverte et Ecole Francasie de Rome (1991), p. 96-97, figure 34.
Martin Robertson, The Art of Vase-Painting in Classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 191-2, fig. 203.
James N. Wood, The Essential Guide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1993), p. 94.
John G. Pedley, Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 1 (1994), pp. 42-43, 46 (ill.)
Karen Alexander, “The New Galleries of Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Minerva (May/June, 1994), vol. 5, No. 3, p. 31, fig. 6.
James Wood, Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2000), p. 71.
G. Zelleke, “An Embarrassment of Riches: Fifteen Years of European Decorative Arts,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol. 28, no. 2 (2002), p. 51, fig. 1.
A.W. Johnston, Trademarks on Greek Vases: Addenda (2006), p. 94, 2C no. 2a.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), pp. 18-19, fig. 3.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Essential Guide (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), p. 69.
Elizabeth Hahn Benge, “From Aegina to Andronicus: A Survey of Coinage at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Historia Mundi no. 5 (January 2016), p. 202.

Art Institute of Chicago, Greek Vase Painting in Midwestern Collections, December 22, 1979-February 4, 1980, cat. no. 111.
Art Institute of Chicago, This is Not a Greek Vase Show, November 1, 1984-January 29, 1986.
Art Institute of Chicago, Greek Vases - Form and Function, Gallery 101A, March 3, 1986-August 8, 1986.
Art Institute of Chicago, Myth and Legend in Classical Art, Gallery 101A, March 1, 1987-August 31, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Human Figure in Greek and Roman Art: From the Permanent Collection (part 2), Gallery 120A, January 13, 1989 - September , 24, 1989.
Art Institute of Chicago, 1889: the First Year of the Classical Collection, Gallery 101A, October 3, 1989-January 2, 1991.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994-February 6, 2012 (excluding July 2009 -October 2009).
Art Institute of Chicago, A Case for Wine: From King Tut to Today, Regenstein Hall, July 11–September 20, 2009.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012-July 15, 2015;
Art Institute of Chicago, Dionysos Unmasked: Ancient Sculpture and Early Prints, Gallery 150 and 154, July 31, 2015-February 15, 2016.

Said to be found at either Capua, 1884 [Old Register at the Art Institute of Chicago] or Nola [William M.R. French, 1889 travel notebook, unpublished manuscript, Art Institute of Chicago Archives]. Augusto Mele, Naples, Italy; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago through J.C. Fletcher as agent, 1889; price reimbursed by Charles Hutchinson and Philip D. Armour, 1889.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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