Our Athenian Pottery online exhibition includes vases of various scale and form; each of which fulfilled a specific function. The krater was the central vessel to the symposium in which wine, water and other ingredients were mixed. Wine was poured from amphorai and water from the hydriai. Various flavors were held in smaller vessels such as lekythoi. Once mixed in the krater, the beverages were served in kylixes and kantharoi. 

The artists that produced these vases worked in the potter’s quarter of Athens, known as the Kermaikos, from which we get the modern term ceramics. These vase painters were held in high esteem, becoming famous for their work. Some of them, who signed their vases are known by name, while others are recognized today only through their artistic style and have been assigned names by modern scholars. 

Among the vases in our exhibition are a krater painted with a scene of lively horsemen by an artist we now know as the now Nausicaa Painter; a Nolan amphora by Hermonax, and a large bilingual eye cup by the prolific early artist, Oltos. The Carlsruhe Painter’s distinctive style is evident in a red-figure lekythos and a kylix, depicting Nike in the tondo. Kraters by Kadmos and Agrigento Painters are also on view.