This vase shows Dionysos, god of wine, reclining on a couch out of doors. A nude youth stands at his feet with a pitcher in his right hand and a strainer in his left. Dionysos holds out a two-handled cup, ready for the boy to refill it with wine. The god’s reclining pose is typical of the symposium, the drinking party of ancient Greek culture. The delicate lines of the wrinkles in his garment suggest the liquid fall of silken cloth.

Behind Dionysos grows a vine heavy with grapes. The vine springs from right where Dionysos lies, literally an outgrowth of his nature. The scene shows a beautiful meeting of cause and effect, the god and his world. It was painted in the last decades of the fifth century B.C. and celebrates sensual delight and fruitful nature as eloquently as the later fêtes champêtres by Titian, Rubens, and Watteau.