Athenian black-figure pelike. Museum's Replica at scale 1:2
An Athenian black-figure pelike, dated to ca. 525–475 BCE, attributed to the Leagros Group, as identified by Laurens and Touchefeu-Meynier. The vase was found in Rhodes and is currently exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes..
Side A shows Dionysos crowned and draped, holding a kantharos, flanked by two satyrs in ecstatic movement. Above them grows a grapevine, laden with clusters — a classic Dionysian symbol of wine and fertility.
Side B depicts Dionysos once again with a kantharos, now accompanied by a maenad and a goat, reinforcing themes of rural festivity and Dionysian cult.
The black-figure technique, with added white and red details, intensifies the ceremonial and expressive quality of the figures. The composition evokes a sense of movement and ritual energy, capturing the spirit of Dionysian processions.
This pelike may have served ritual or symposium purposes, and its iconography reflects the theatrical and cultic power of Dionysos in late Archaic Athens.
