This bell crater is the Wolfenbüttel painter's namesake vessel, named after the former place of storage with its previous owner, Erhart Kästner.
Vase research, which was decisively influenced by John D. Beazley in the first half of the 20th century, uses name designations to distinguish individual vase painters, which usually represent a 'name of necessity'. This is because the true author of a vase painting is only known in the rarest of cases, namely only if he personally signs his work.
Beazley assumed that vase painters reveal themselves in regularly repeated details, such as similar executions of individual body parts, a particular brushstroke, etc. The Wolfenbüttel painter is thus also concealed behind such a notional name. His particular idiosyncrasies are the way in which the two cloaked young men are depicted and the writing tablet that hangs above them. (AVS)
Former Erhart Kästner Collection, Wolfenbüttel
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