A "dinosaur skull" on a large column greek krater
This large column krater is elaborately decorated with both abstract and figurative motifs. The upper part of the broad, flat rim of the vessel is painted with a braid pattern that becomes a floral chain in one section. Each handle plate bears the image of a man’s head slightly overlapping a woman’s head, both represented in profile and wearing fillets. The outer part of the rim is painted with a series of squares: this same decoration is repeated on the widest part of the belly of the vessel, where it separates the two figurative friezes. A series of alternating red and black tongues are painted at the top of the upper frieze on the shoulder of the vessel. This tongue pattern is unevenly rendered, and in places overlapped by the figures populating the narrative. The upper frieze is divided into two parts, separated by pairs of confronted and overlapping cocks standing beneath each handle. On the obverse, a helmeted charioteer drives his horses off to the left. A ma...