A New Apulian Krater in the World Heritage Museum

Abstract

tury attitude ranged from neglect to contempt. But fortune once again is smiling on South Italian wares, with the international recognition that the bounty of unresearched Greek pottery in museum collections now lies with those Apulian, Campanian, Lucanian, Paestan, and Sicilian works bought so many years ago at bargain-basement prices.' Fortune must also be favoring the World Heritage Museum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for its collections are abundant in Apulian and Campanian wares. Most of these vases were created specifically for funerary use.2 Highlights of the collection include: an oinochoe of the Baltimore painter's workshop, an epichysis and dish from the Menzies Group, a kantharos and plate by the White Saccos painter, and two remarkable fish plates-one Apulian, the other Campanian.3 The most notable work and latest acquisition is a monumental volute krater, the John Needles Chester vase, which has been attributed to the Baltimore painter (see fig. 1).4 The Baltimore painter's name-piece, a volute krater in the Walters Art Gallery (48.86), displays similar decorative motives, figures, style, and compositional characteristics as the Chester vase. The rich overpainting with whites, yellows, and purples and the busy, tiered composition of posed figures and elaborate floral patterns earn the World Heritage Museum krater a place in the Ornate Style of the last quarter of the fourth century B.C. The subject matter of the Chester vase is distinctly funerary. On the ob-