Krater of the tuna’s seller from Lipari, IV century BC

Description:

Krater of the so-called “bell-shaped type” for its characteristic shape, depicting a vibrant everyday scene on the main side: on the left an old, bony fishmonger, with a  big white head, while preparing to cut with a piece from a tuna with a knife resting on a stool, as requested by a customer who is a little man with thin legs wrapped in a cloak and leaning on a cane,  depicted on the other side of the counter, in the act of handing the money to pay.

The scene takes on a special force for the vivid gestures of the characters, for the deformation that is near a caricature not only for the bodies but mainly for the heads deliberately disproportionate to emphasize their transformation into real masks, as the figures of a play. On the other side there is the representation of the usual scene of two young shrouded men while talking together.

The hand of a pottery painter called “Artist of the tuna seller” is recognized in this vessel; a craftsman who, being part of the so-called “Group of Dirce”, worked around the first half of the IV century BC in an area which is currently uncertain but likely to be located in Sicily.