Dinos of the Gorgon Painter

A dinos is a big round-bottomed bowl for mixing wine with water at a Greek drinking party. It cannot stand on its own, so it came with a tall stand, and this one, bowl and stand together, is 93 centimetres high. It was painted in Athens around 580 BC. Most of its surface is covered in bands of animals and plant ornament, and only the top frieze tells a story. Perseus hurries away with Medusa's head, her two sister Gorgons run after him, and Hermes in his traveller's hat, probably with Athena, the gods who helped him, stand by. On the other side two armed warriors fight between their chariots. A continuous band of figures telling a myth was still new on Athenian pots at this date.

Where the vase was found is not recorded. It belonged to Giampietro Campana, a Roman collector whose Greek vases came mostly from Etruscan tombs, and it reached the Louvre when his collection was bought in 1861.