For the Greek vase collection in the National Gallery of Victoria the year between the spring of 1979 and the winter of 1980 must be regarded as an annus mirabilis, since no fewer than seven vases were added to it, covering a range of nearly six centuries, from c. 900 to c. 300 B.C., and filling several serious gaps, notably by the acquisition of an Attic Protogeometric amphora (no. 1), the Nicosthenes neck-amphora (no. 3), the Hermonax stamnos (no. 4) and the Paestan bell-krater (no. 5). These, together with a Band cup signed by Hermogenes and a Late Apulian oenochoe, are discussed in some detail below;1 The comments on nos 1, 3 and 4 were written by Dr Ian McPhee and on nos 2, 5 and 6 by Professor A. D Trendall. the seventh, an Attic red-figured lekythos representing Oedipus and the Sphinx and attributed to the Achilles Painter, the artist responsible for our white-ground lekythos, will be the subject of a separate article in a following issue of the Art Bulletin.
We must express once again our deep gratitude to the Trustees of the Felton Bequest who, by a most generous provision of funds, made possible the acquisition of five of these vases, and also to the National Bank of Australasia Ltd which, as a Governor of the Art Foundation, supported through that body the purchase at auction of the stamnos by Hermonax (no. 4), which may well lay claim to be the finest example in Australia of the Attic red-figured style of vase-painting.
Two of the vases discussed below (nos 2 and 3), each bearing the signature of its potter – a Band cup by Hermogenes and a neck-amphora by Nicosthenes – came from the Marquess of Northampton’s famous collection of Greek vases in Castle Ashby, recently published in a fascicule of the Corpus Vasorum by John Boardman and Martin Robertson, and sold at Christie’s in London on 2 July 1980. This collection was built up by the second Marquess (1790–1851), mainly in Italy during the 1820s, and in the words of Sir John Beazley, who published a brief account of it in 1929,2 ‘Notes on the Vases at Castle Ashby’, in BSR 11, 1929, pp. 1–29, pls 1–11. The Sale Catalogue of the collection (Christie’s, London, 2 July 1980) illustrates all the vases, many in colour, with descriptive notes abridged from the fuller publication in the CVA. was ‘the richest private collection in Great Britain and one of the richest in the world’. It contained just over 100 vases, and they realised over £1,340,000 at the sale. Thanks to the presence of Dr Ursula Hoff, the London-based Advisor to the Felton Trustees, and to the latter’s strong support, the Gallery was able to acquire, in the face of very keen international competition, the two signed vases mentioned above, each of which must be regarded as a most notable accession to our collection, not only on the score of their provenance, but also because each represents a shape not previously included and is an outstanding example of the work of its particular potter.
The Attic Protogeometric amphora (no. 1) is the only specimen of its kind so far to be seen in Australia, the Paestan bell-krater (no. 5) is not only a superb example of the early stage of this fabric but has a subject of great theatrical interest, and the Apulian oenochoe (no. 6), with its central picture in added colours provides us with an admirable illustration of the last stage in the development of that branch of South Italian vase-painting, just before it moves into the fully polychrome style of the Early Hellenistic period at the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. Each of the recently acquired vases, therefore, represents a significant addition to the Gallery’s collection, which is now, in consequence, able to offer a somewhat fuller picture of the development of Greek vase-painting than was previously possible.
I Attic
1. Late Protogeometric shoulder-handled amphora (Figs 1–3)
This small amphora was made in Athens about 900 B.C. It is an important piece that illustrates the transition from the Protogeometric style (c. 1050–900 B.C.) to the first stage of the Early Geometric (c. 900–875 B.C.), and is the first example of Protogeometric or Geometric to be acquired by the National Gallery.3 Accession no. D67/1980. Ht 36.3–36.7; diam. of mouth 16.6, of foot at outer edge, 11. The terracotta is well levigated, hard, and pale brown in colour; the glaze greenish-black with a slight sheen. For Protogeometric pottery see V. R. d’A. Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery, Oxford, 1952 (= PGP). For Geometric pottery see J. N. Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery, London, 1968. On these periods in general see A. M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece, Edinburgh, 1971; V. R. d’A. Desborough, The Greek Dark Ages, London, 1972; J. N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece, London, 1977.
The vase is intact except that there are two cracks on the obverse and reverse which begin at the lip (where there is some restoration) and run down onto the shoulder.4 A small area on the obverse below the third group of strokes has been restored. In addition the glaze on the reverse and under both handles has been much abraded. At two points on the reverse below the shoulder-pattern there is a slight depression where the amphora has perhaps been up against other vases in the kiln.
The body of the vase is ovoid in shape. The shoulder passes smoothly into the neck which flares out to form a broad mouth. The vase rests on a low ring-foot and was held by means of two vertical strap-handles placed on the shoulder, from which it derives the name of shoulder-handled amphora, one of the four types of amphora used in the Protogeometric period.5 The others are the belly-handled amphora: Arias/Hirmer, pl. 1; the neck-handled amphora: B. Schweitzer, Greek Geometric Art, London, 1971, fig. 5; the amphora with handles from shoulder to lip: K. Kuebler, Kerameikos IV, Berlin, 1943, pl. 8. The shoulder-handled amphora seems to have been developed in Athens already by the beginning of this period,6 See W. Kraiker and K. Kuebler, Kerameikos I, Berlin, 1939, pl. 61 and p. 91 (inv. 531; ht 26.3). but the shape becomes popular only towards the end of the period when there is evidence that it was used in female burials in place of the traditional belly-handled amphora.7 Desborough’s suggestion: PGP, pp. 30 and 37. At this stage the body is globular or only slightly ovoid. In the first phase of Early Geometric (c. 900–875 B.C.) the shape remains essentially unchanged, but later it is modified: the body becomes more elongated, the neck taller, the total height greater.8 e.g. Kerameikos inv. 825, Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery, pl. 5g. The type eventually disappears from the potter’s repertory during the second quarter of the 8th century (end of Middle Geometric II).
Most of the surface of our amphora is covered with black glaze, a dark background, from which the decoration stands out. On the neck between pairs of horizontal lines is a dogtooth pattern consisting of thirty solid triangles. Careful observation will reveal that the painter began the motif just above the left handle of the obverse. On the shoulder, again between pairs of horizontal lines, is a pattern of five groups of diagonal strokes separated by upright, alternating with pendant, solid triangles. The groups of strokes are inclined in alternate directions. The arrangement on both sides may be represented schematically as A + Β + A + Β + A: on the obverse, 10 + 9 + 9 + 10 + 11 strokes, on the reverse 10 + 9 + 10 + 10 + 12. The third zone of decoration occurs on the lower body: a reserved band with three parallel lines. We may also note that the topside of each handle is decorated with horizontal strokes.9 The underside of the handles and the area below each handle are reserved; the inside of the neck is reserved (wheelmarks visible) except for the first centimetre; the edge of the foot is glazed, the resting surface and underside of the vase reserved. There are no signs of wear at the lip. Apart from the handles the decoration is to be found on the neck, shoulder and lower body, the most important motif on the shoulder. The three main parts of the vase have been stressed, but the zones of ornament and the areas of black glaze have been carefully balanced.
The most characteristic decorative motifs of Protogeometric pottery, concentric circles or semicircles drawn with compass and multiple brush,10 e.g. Arias/Hirmer, pl. 1, or PGP, pls 4–5. are not used on our amphora, but the designs that are present, dogtooth, groups of diagonal strokes, and parallel lines, all occur commonly on Protogeometric vases and linger on into the first phase of Early Geometric, which is otherwise characterised by the appearance of the meander, in two forms, battlement and key. Another element which may help us towards a date for our amphora is the scheme of decoration. On large vases the Protogeometric artist likes to emphasise the shoulder or both the shoulder and body;11 For examples of Protogeometric shoulder-handled amphorae see PGP, pl. 6 (Kerameikos inv. 610); Kerameikos I, pl. 45 (Kerameikos inv. 595); PGP, pl. 6 (Kerameikos inv. 2131). The transition to Geometric is discussed by Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery, pp. 8–10. the Early Geometric artist, however, tends to ignore the shoulder and to decorate the neck and body. The Melbourne vase has the principal ornamentation on the shoulder and neck, and a subsidiary zone on the lower body. Thus both the scheme of decoration and the motifs suggest that the amphora is a transitional piece, and to be dated c. 900 B.C.
2. Black-figured Band cup, signed by Hermogenes as maker12 Accession no. D393-1980; Felton Bequest. Ht 15; diam. of mouth 20.3, of foot 10. CVA, Castle Ashby, p. 18 (where bibliography); Sale Cat., Christie’s, 2 July 1980, p. 99, no. 58 (ill.). (Figs 4–5)
Around the middle and during the third quarter of the 6th century B.C., there flourished at Athens a school of vase-painters known as ‘Little-Masters’, who specialised in the decoration of cups in a miniaturist style of great delicacy and elegance. Two main types of cup are found at this time – the Lip and the Band. Both have a tall stemmed foot and a spreading bowl; in the former, of which D118/1969,13 A. D. Trendall, Greek Vases in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1978, p. 6, pl. 4b; Art Bull. Vict. 1970–71, pp. 1–2, figs 1–2. Ex Sotheby, Sale Cat., 14 Nov. 1966, no. 122, ill. opp. p. 58. attributed to Sakonides, is a splendid example, the lip is rather more clearly marked off, and the outside, where the figured decoration is located, is left in the natural orange-red of the fired clay; on the latter, as may be seen from the newly-acquired cup, the lip is painted black on the outside and the decoration is confined to a reserved band between the handles. In both types the foot is black outside, except for the edge, which is reserved, and reserved inside and underneath. The handles are black outside, reserved inside. Outside, the lower part of the bowl is black, with a reserved stripe about half-way down. The interior is usually left plain save for a small reserved disc (on our vase 4.5 cm across, with a black dot in the middle and a circle round it) or circles only.
On Band cups the decoration normally consists of a many-figured scene which extends from handle to handle, but on a few, of which ours is one, it consists only of a brief picture, a transference, as it were, of the Lip-cup scheme to the Band cup. In this case the scene is generally framed between palmettes and accompanied by inscriptions, which are in the same zone as the picture and flank it on either side. They often give us the name of the maker of the vase, in this instance Hermogenes, and, as Beazley has pointed out, it is remarkable that on a very high proportion of the signed Band cups with brief scenes chariots are represented, suggesting that a chariot-scene was part of the original creation, for which Hermogenes may have been responsible.
The scene on our vase, which was acquired in July 1980, through the Felton Bequest, at the sale of the Castle Ashby collection, seems to have been a great favourite with the painter, since he repeated it with minor variations on five other cups;14 ABV, p. 165. The other cups are Cambridge 63, Florence 70996, Munich 2332, Oxford 231, and Louvre C 10261. it shows a warrior approaching a four-horse chariot (Figs 4–5). He wears a low-crested helmet of Corinthian type and carries a round shield and a spear. On one side the shield has the device of a wheel in added white, on the other, a tripod. The charioteer wears a long tunic and holds the reins and a goad; behind his back is a shield with cut-away sides and a curved profile. Touches of red are used to emphasise details of the warrior’s armour, the charioteer’s drapery and shield, the horses’ necks and haunches, and added white for the shield blazons and other minor details.
The pictures are framed between palmettes springing out on a curling stem from the handles; their leaves are alternately red and black, the hearts red with white dots around them.
On both sides of the vase the chariot scene is flanked by inscriptions; to the left is the name of the potter, Hermogenes, and to right ΕΠΟΙΕΣΕΝ EME (epoiesen eme, i.e. ‘made me’). On the reverse the letters of the name have been partly obliterated and subsequently restored to some extent. As the potter’s signature normally appears on both sides of his cups, and as some of the surviving original letters correspond with those of Hermogenes, the inscription has generally been read as if it were identical with the one on the other side, but in its present state we cannot be certain of the actual reading.
The cup has been put together from large fragments and there is a certain amount of repainting, especially over the joins and on the left handle-palmette on the reverse, where also there has been some touching-up of the horses’ heads, and some surface damage to their tails.
The Gallery has been very fortunate in its acquisition of such a distinguished counterpart to its Lip cup, since we are now able to make an immediate comparison between the two chief varieties of Little-Master cups and to contrast the different effects achieved by their respective methods of decoration, noting that on the Lip cup the balance between light and dark is greatly in favour of the former, while the opposite is true of the latter, especially on those cups where the figures fill the entire handle-zone. As is usual on these cups, the drawing is neat and refined, and there is that pleasing harmony between shape and design which is characteristic of the best of Archaic Greek vases.
3. Attic black-figured neck-amphora of Nicosthenic shape (Figs 6–11)
The most frequent signature on Attic black-figured vases of the second half of the 6th century B.C. is that of Nicosthenes. He was a potter who made vases for a number of black-figure and, later, red-figure painters. His output included not only traditional, but also new shapes, as well as variations on standard shapes. Among the inventions for which Nicosthenes was responsible is the neck-amphora of ‘Nicosthenic’ shape, a vase with ‘a long neck, a thin, flowing mouth, a high foot, thin band-like handles, and two raised fillets, about an inch and a half apart, round the middle’.15 J. D. Beazley, The Development of Attic Black-figure, London, 1951, p. 73. On Nicosthenes see also John Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, London, 1974, pp. 64–65, with a bibliography on p. 236. The earliest examples belong to the years around 540 B.C. and the latest to the end of the century. The shape is a curiosity. The Athenian potter has, in fact, adapted an Etruscan shape found in the local ‘Bucchero’ pottery from the second quarter of the 6th century but decorated normally only on the handles, with stamped or openwork designs.16 See most recently Tom Rasmussen, Bucchero Pottery from Southern Etruria, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 74–75 and 168; Monika Verzar, ‘Eine Gruppe etruskischer Bandhenkelamphoren’, Antike Kunst, 16, 1973, pp. 45–56. For Etruscan influence on the decoration of Attic Nicosthenic neck-amphorae see D. A. Jackson, East Greek Influence on Attic Vases, London, 1976, p. 38. The Etruscan neck-amphorae appear to have been made at one particular site, Cerveteri, the ancient Caere, and almost all the Attic Nicosthenic neck-amphorae with a known provenience come from that site. Clearly, then, the Athenian vases, with their elaborate painted decoration, were intended for the Etruscan market, and especially for that of Caere. The shape is confined to the workshop of Nicosthenes and Pamphaios and does not outlast the 6th century.
The Nicosthenic neck-amphora now in the National Gallery comes from the collection at Castle Ashby, has been known for many years and is an excellent example of this novel shape.17 Accession no. D392/1980; Felton Bequest. Ht 30.4-30.6. Diam. of mouth 13, of foot 10.6. Ht of neck 9.8; width of handles 5.5 (at base) – 6 (at top). J. D. Beazley, ABV, p. 221, no. 40 (Painter N, various); John Boardman in CVA, Castle Ashby, pl. 19,1–3 and p. 11 (where the earlier bibliography is cited); Christie’s Sale Cat., 2 July 1980, pp. 130–31, no. 84; John Boardman, The Greeks Overseas, 3rd ed., London, 1980, p. 201, fig. 238. The height of the Melbourne vase is normal for Nicosthenic neck-amphorae. Most fall between 28 and 33 cm. In general, the vase is in very good condition, but it is not intact (as stated in the CVA),18 CVA, p. 11; no further account is there given of the condition of the vase. since half the foot is modern, both handles and the lip above the left handle have been broken and mended, and the body of the vase has been put together from several large fragments, with a little repainting along the lines of the breaks.
Nicosthenic neck-amphorae may be decorated either with, or without, human figures. Vases with human figures easily form the larger group, but as the figures are usually rather coarsely drawn, their absence on the Melbourne vase may be counted as no great loss.19 Cf. J. D. Beazley, BSR 11, 1929, p. 6.
The flat rim of our vase is decorated with nineteen small dolphins (Fig. 9), and every second dolphin had a white belly and a red body, though the added colour has faded in many places.20 ‘Most have red on their bodies and a white belly line, but some are all black and one has only the white belly line’, CVA, p. 11, repeated in the Sale Catalogue, p. 130. This description is not quite correct; a careful study will show the original arrangement. Although some form of floral is perhaps more common in this position, there are other vases with dolphins. Similar zones of dolphins occur in East Greek pottery, and their presence on these Athenian neck-amphorae may be taken as one element of the Ionian influence on Attic art during the third quarter of the 6th century.21 See D. A. Jackson, op. cit.. p. 70. The influence is no less visible in sculpture. The third quarter of the 6th century was the heyday of the rule of Peisistratos, who seems to have encouraged Ionian craftsmen to work in Athens.
The neck of the Melbourne vase is decorated on both sides with a large lotus and palmette quatrefoil enlivened with added red (hearts and alternate leaves of each palmette and lotus) and white (rows of small dots on the flowers, and large dots in the circular links). The topside of the handles also has floral decoration, a vertical tendril from which spring alternating horizontal palmettes and buds.22 The edges of the handles are black, the undersides reserved. The inside of the neck is also reserved, except for the first 4 cm, which are black. At the base of each handle is a snake, an unusual, perhaps funerary, motif that is also found below one of the handles of a Nicosthenic neck-amphora in the Louvre (F109).23 ABV, p. 221, no. 45; CVA, Louvre 4, III He, pl. 35,16. A chain of alternating palmettes and leaves extends across the body between the two raised fillets. Red is used for the heart and the central leaf of each palmette, and the former is bordered by white dots. Below the lower fillet, between black bands, is a broad zone of linked buds with black dots within the links below. The final zone on the body is decorated with simple black rays (also, of course, floral in origin).24 The combination of linked buds above rays is taken from the normal decoration of the lower body of standard neck-amphorae: see, for example, Arias/Hirmer, pls XVIII and XXII. The foot is black except for the resting surface and the underside, which are reserved. Finally, comes the shoulder, which bears the most important decoration. Beside each handle is a palmette with a red heart, and in the centre on each side a large eye to left, with eyebrow above. The pupil of each eye is black with a red dot at the centre hiding the point of the compass with which the circles of the iris have been outlined. These are three in number, red, white and black from the centre outwards. Next to each eye a small nose is drawn in outline, though that on the reverse is only three-quarter formed. Above the eyebrow on the obverse is the signature of the potter: ΝΙΚΟΣΘΕΝΕΣ ΕΠΟΙΕΣΕΝ (‘Nicosthenes made me’) (Fig. 10).
This is not the only Nicosthenic neck-amphora decorated with eyes. An example in Hanover (1961.23)25 Hanover 1961.23, J. D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1970 (= Para.), p. 106, no. 58 bis; CVA, Hanover 1. pl. 17. has an eye on each side of the neck, and six others – Vatican 363; Paris, Petit Palais 303; Brussels R388; Basel, Ludwig Collection; Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum 68.AE.19; once Roman Market26 Basel, Ludwig Collection, E. Berger and R. Lullies, Antike Kunstwerke aus der Sammlung Ludwig I, Basel, 1979, pp. 64–67, no. 23, Para., p. 105, no. 43 bis; once Roman Market, ABV, p. 225, no. 12; Malibu 68. AE. 19, J. Paul Getty Museum Journal I, 1974, pp. 43–54, Para., p. 106; Vatican 363, ABV, p. 221, no. 43; Paris, Petit Palais 303, ABV, p. 221, no. 38; Brussels R 388, ABV, p. 217, no. 11. – have eyes on the shoulder, a pair of eyes, however, not, as on the Melbourne vase, a single eye. Such decoration on neck-amphorae is uncommon,27 See the neck-amphorae, British Museum Β 264 and Β 266, CVA, B.M. 4, pl. 65,1 and 2, ABV, p. 288, no. 19, and p. 273, no. 118, and the remarks by Mary Moore and Dietrich von Bothmer, CVA, New York 4, p. 54. but it is standard on the new variety of lipless cup (type A) first used, so it appears, by Exekias. His famous Dionysos cup in Munich, dated about 540 B.C., has a pair of eyes on both sides; perhaps we owe the introduction of this motif to him.28 The Munich cup: Arias/Hirmer, pls XVI and 59. D. A. Jackson, op. cit., pp. 60–68, has argued strongly for the derivation of the Attic decoration from East Greek pottery via Chalcidian eye-cups. He has useful comments on the origin, form and function of these eyes. For eye-cups potted by Nicosthenes, see A. D. Ure, JHS 42, 1922, pp. 193–94. No doubt the painter of the Melbourne neck-amphora has taken over his eye from the decoration of such cups, and the nose also, since it appears not infrequently between the eyes on eye-cups.29 But rarely on Nicosthenic neck-amphorae: see Paris, Petit Palais 303, ABV, p. 221, no. 38. The decoration of the Melbourne vase shows another connection with that of black-figure cups. The upright palmettes on the shoulder, connected by long stems to the handles, are not unlike those that occur, in the middle and third quarter of the 6th century, next to handles of Little Master cups such as that by Hermogenes (see above, no. 2).
Our vase was potted by Nicosthenes; it was painted, like all the other Nicosthenic neck-amphorae that bear the signature of Nicosthenes, by an artist whom we call Painter N. He is the main black-figure artist in the workshop, and may be Nicosthenes himself, although at present the connection cannot be proven.
One final observation needs to be recorded. Under the foot, approximately below the centre of the reverse is a graffito (Fig. 11). It is probably a single letter, perhaps the closed form of the letter (h)eta, which in this instance would be either a vowel (ē) or a numeral (8). It might even be Etruscan rather than Greek, but it is, in any case, a trademark, one of many to be found incised or painted on the undersides of Attic vases. The 4th-century bell-krater (D1/1976) has a larger and more intelligible mark of this sort.30 On trademarks see A. W. Johnston, Trademarks on Greek Vases, Warminster, 1979, especially p. 22. The graffito is not mentioned in CVA. For the bell-krater D1/1976 see Art Bull. Vict. 1976, p. 44, and Trendall, Greek Vases in the N.G.V., p. 10.
The potter Nicosthenes was active from about 540 to about 510 B.C. His neck-amphorae of Nicosthenic shape show a development from a broader to a more slender body. The Melbourne vase comes midway in this development and may be dated c. 530–20 B.C. In his later years Nicosthenes, and his younger colleague Pamphaios, made cups for an early red-figure artist known as the Nicosthenes Painter, a splendid example of whose work, signed by Pamphaios, may be seen in the Herakles and Alkyoneus cup (1730/4) in our collection.31 Trendall, Greek Vases In the N.G.V., pp. 7–8, pl. 5.
4. Attic red-figured Stamnos attributed to Hermonax (Figs 12–19)
‘Stamnos is the conventional name given more than a hundred years ago by archaeologists to a wide-mouthed vase with a foot and two horizontal handles set on the level of the shoulders’.32 D. von Bothmer, Gnomon 39, 1967, p. 813, in a review of Barbara Philippaki, The Attic Stamnos, Oxford, 1967. For stamnoi see also C. Isler-Kerenyi, Stamnoi, Lugano, 1976; eadem, ‘Stamnoi e Stamnoidi’, Quaderni Ticinesi 5, 1976, pp. 33–52; eadem and F. Causey-Frel, Stamnoi, Malibu, 1980. In the 5th century at least ‘stamnos’ seems to have been the name for the shape that is now conventionally called ‘pelike’; see Johnston, Trademarks on Greek Vases, p. 32. The Attic stamnos was a container for wine and other liquids; it could also be placed in the tomb as an offering to the dead, or as an urn for the ashes. The earliest stamnos of canonical shape is a vase in the British Museum, potted by Pamphaios and decorated by Oltos: the date is about 520.33 Philippaki, op. cit., pp. 1–2 and pl. 1, begins her discussion with a stamnoid vase now in the Niarchus Collection in Paris, to be dated c. 560–550 B.C. The shape, however, has unusual elements, and even its Attic origin has been doubted: Isler-Kerenyi, Quaderni Ticinesi 5, 1976, p. 33, note 2; see also Jackson, op. cit , p. 7, and p. 8, fig. 8. The latest examples belong to the last quarter of the 5th century. The shape was most popular during the first half of the 5th century, during the Late Archaic and Early Classical periods, especially in the workshop of the Berlin Painter and his pupils (such as Hermonax).
The stamnos recently acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria is in excellent condition.34 Accession no. D64/1980. Acquired with the generous assistance of the National Bank of Australasia Limited, Governor, The Art Foundation of Victoria. Ht 31.5; with lid 37. Diam. of mouth 17.3, of lid 16.3, of base 12.3. Published in Muenzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56, Basel, 19 Feb. 1980, no. 98, pp. 47–48, pl. 43, and colour frontispiece. The vase itself is intact, but the glaze has been rubbed away in places, particularly over the lower left side of the obverse. The lid, however, has been broken in two and repaired. The reserved areas show the bright orange clay so typical of the finest Athenian pottery of the 5th century. The glaze is highly lustrous and, for the most part, a deep black, but in certain areas has fired red.
The curved lip of the vase has a tooled groove at the top and is decorated with an egg pattern. The neck, which is very slightly concave in profile, is black on the inside and outside. The junction of the neck and shoulder is marked by a narrow black moulding. Next to this on the flat shoulder is a tongue pattern. The handles, fairly flat and glazed only on the top, are set at the point of greatest diameter. The body of the vase tapers noticeably towards the base and is not marked off from the disc foot. The latter is black on top, but the rounded edge and the underside are reserved. All these features indicate that our vase goes with a group of stamnoi, mainly decorated by the Berlin Painter, the Providence Painter and Hermonax, which have been put together on the basis of shape as the ‘Class of the Late Stamnoi of the Berlin Painter’. At least eight of the twenty-three or so stamnoi painted by Hermonax belong to this class.35 Philippaki, op. cit., pp. 36–46. Hermonax also decorates his own special type of stamnos: Philippaki, pp. 46–48.
The Melbourne stamnos is particularly interesting in that it comes with a lid. Most stamnoi no longer have lids, and on occasion a lid may be placed on the wrong vase, whether in antiquity or more recent times.36 On lids in general see D. von Bothmer, ‘Lids by Andokides’, Berliner Museen 14, 1964, pp. 38–41. Three other stamnoi by Hermonax, one in Rome and two in Leningrad,37 Rome, Villa Giulia 5241, ARV2, p. 484, 9; Leningrad 803 (St. 1692) and 804 (St. 1711), ARV2, p. 484, 15 and 16; A. Peredolskaya, Krasnofigurnye Attischeskie Vazy, Leningrad, 1967, pls 80 and 81. have lids and these have the same basic form and simple decoration as the Melbourne lid. This strengthens the view that the lid belongs to the stamnos, though the fit is somewhat loose.
Although normally on stamnoi there is a complex floral at the handles, which separates the pictures on obverse and reverse, on the Melbourne stamnos the decoration runs round the vase and each handle is placed over a figure. This scheme is an old one in Attic pottery and a favourite of Hermonax.38 For an early example see the main zone on the Francois Vase, ABV, p. 76,1, Arias/Hirmer, pls 40–46. The groundline for the figures is formed by a band of pattern: pairs of stopt meanders facing in alternate directions broken by cross-squares attached alternately to the border above and below. This pattern is characteristic of the Berlin Painter and his followers.39 See J. D. Beazley, The Berlin Painter, Melbourne, 1964, p. 7, where this principle of pattern is called ULFA (= upper, lower, facing alternately). On the Melbourne stamnos the painter began the pattern below the forward foot of the woman under the left handle; he ended with a saltire-square and three stopt meanders to right.
The picture on the main side shows two warriors fighting (Figs 14, 16). The victor, as often in Greek art, attacks from the left. He is youthful: we see his spiralling locks and downy cheek. He strides forward purposefully and is about to thrust a double-headed spear into his opponent. His armour consists of Attic helmet (with long tailed crest), greaves and multiple-piece cuirass below which he wears a short chiton. A scabbard with sheathed sword hangs at his left side from a red baldric. His large round shield has handgrip (antilabē), armband (porpax) and tasselled cords, as has that of the second warrior (see detail, Fig. 16). Attached to the lower part of the shield is an ‘apron’, no doubt of leather, which would have served to protect the legs against arrows and sling-stones.40 See R. M. Cook, CVA, British Museum 8, p. 54 on pl. 5; P. E. Corbett, The British Museum Quarterly 24, 1961. pp. 97–98; E. Knauer, Ein Skyphos des Triptolemosmalers, Berlin, 1973, p. 9, and p. 22, note 24. The shield-apron is first seen in East Greek art about 550 B.C. and appears in Attic vase-painting from the end of the 6th century until about 430 B.C. The second warrior is an older man, and rather bigger. He has a prominent beard as well as long curling hair. He falls to the ground but half turns and jabs with his spear at his advancing foe. As there is no sign of blood on his body, he may have stumbled rather than have suffered a wound. Here too we see greaves, a round shield, a sheathed sword slung from a red strap, and a helmet, but it is of Thracian type with high bowl and offset visor.41 A. M. Snodgrass, Arms and Armour of the Greeks, London, 1967, p. 95 and pl. 53. The warrior does not wear a cuirass; his nakedness serves partly for variety, partly to denote his heroic status.42 The stomach muscles and rib-cage are drawn in diluted glaze which is used elsewhere on the male figures for anatomical lines on arms and legs. Both warriors are supported by women. The woman at the left (Fig. 13) hurries forward, her arms outstretched in a gesture of encouragement and joy. She wears a chiton with deep kolpos (pouch below the girdle), a cloak over both shoulders, spiral bracelets, earring, and radiate diadem. The woman below the right handle (Fig. 15) also wears a chiton, and a himation (cloak) which is here draped diagonally from the left shoulder, but she also has a kerchief veiling her head. She rushes forward, one hand outstretched, the other gripping her kerchief, in alarm.
This picture is full of action; that on the back of the vase is quieter (Fig. 12), but no less dramatic. We enter the world of the Olympian gods. The majestic, bearded figure on the left, in chiton and himation, is Zeus, ‘lord of men and gods’, as Homer calls him (see detail, Fig. 17). He is easily recognisable by his sceptre (pointed end, lotus finial) and thunderbolt. Beside him is Hermes, also bearded. He is dressed as a traveller: short tunic, short cloak fastened on the right shoulder (chlamys), broad- brimmed hat (petasos), and winged boots. He holds his characteristic serpent-tipped staff (kerykeion) and in his right hand another object, a balance. The two pans are reserved in the clay ground, but the three cords attaching each pan to the horizontal bar are only incised in the glaze. The right-hand pan has sunk. The balance gives us the clue to the scene: it is the weighing of the souls (psychostasia) of the fighting warriors. Usually two small images (warriors or winged figures) are shown in the pans of the scale (cf. Fig. 19), but on our vase they do not appear. Here the fate of the warriors has been decided, and Hermes looks across at Zeus who turns to depart. The third figure, a goddess holding a sceptre in her left hand, looks at the balance and raises her right arm, fingers outstretched, in excitement.
The image of the weighing goes back to Homer. In Book XXII of the Iliad, lines 209–13, during the fight between Achilles and Hector, Zeus balances the fates (keres) of the warriors in golden scales.43 See also Iliad VIII. 69–74 and XVI. 658. That of Hector sinks and the hero dies. At some time between c. 500 and 456 B.C. Aeschylus wrote a Psychostasia, now lost, which formed the second play in a trilogy dealing with Memnon, the king of the Ethiopians, and his death at the hands of Achilles. In this play Zeus weighed the souls (psychai) of the warriors in the presence of their mothers, the sea-nymph Thetis and the dawn-goddess Eos.
In Greek vase-painting there are nine representations of the psychostasia besides that on our vase, and seven of these are Attic,44 They are: (1) Rome, Villa Giulia, black-figured hydria perhaps by an East Greek artist resident in Etruria, K. Schefold, Goetter- und Heldensagen der Griechen in der spaetarchaischen Kunst, Munich, 1978, figs 324–25, c. 530 B.C.; (2) Vienna 3619, Attic black-figured dinos by the Painter of the Vatican Mourner, ABV, p. 140, no. 3; E. Simon, Die Geburt der Aphrodite, Berlin, 1959, p. 74, c. 530 B.C.; (3) Rome, Villa Giulia 57912, Attic red-figured cup by Epiktetos, ARV2, p. 72, no. 24; Schefold, op. cit., fig. 322, c. 510 B.C.; (4) Paris, Cab. Med. 385 and Bonn 143b, fragments of an Attic red-figured volute-krater by the Kleophrades Painter, ARV2, p. 186, no. 50, c. 500–490 B.C.; (5) London, B.M. Β 639, Attic black-figured lekythos by the Sappho Painter, J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, London, 1974, fig. 261, c. 490 B.C.; (6) Boston 10.177, Attic red-figured stamnos by the Syracuse Painter, ARV2, p. 518, no. 1, here fig. 15, c. 470–460 B.C.; (7) Paris, Louvre CA 2243, Attic red-figured Nolan amphora by the Nikon Painter, ARV2, p. 651, no. 11; Simon, op. cit., p. 77, c. 460 B.C.; (8) Paris, Louvre G 399, Attic red-figured cup, Simon, op. cit., p. 79, c. 470-450 B.C.; (9) Leiden AMM 1, Campanian red-figured neck-amphora by the Ixion Painter, Trendall, LCS, p. 339, no. 800, c. 330 B.C. On the psychostasia see J. D Beazley in Caskey and Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 3, Boston, 1963, pp. 44–46; more recently Emily Vermeule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry, Berkeley, 1979, pp. 76–77 and 160–62; and K. Friis Johansen, The Iliad in Early Greek Art, Copenhagen, 1967, pp. 260–61. of which a stamnos in Boston (Fig. 19), of the same date as our vase, is an excellent example. In all Hermes holds the balance, and in most two women, Thetis and Eos, are present. These scenes must represent the story of Memnon but they cannot be derived from Aeschylus’ drama as the earliest belong to the second half of the 6th century. They are indebted to an earlier literary work, most probably the Althlopis, an epic poem by Arktinos of Miletos which included the fight between Achilles and Memnon.
We now turn back to the stamnos in Melbourne. The young warrior must be Achilles. His collapsing opponent will be Memnon.45 This is not the interpretation favoured in Muenzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56, Basel, 1980, pp. 47–48, where Hector is preferred. In this case the woman behind the warrior ought to be Hekabe. This is very unlikely. If the scenes were derived from the Iliad, Zeus should hold the scales. The woman behind Achilles will be his mother, Thetis; the woman behind Memnon, Eos. One figure still remains to be identified, the goddess on the reverse. She holds a sceptre, and that is an attribute, in vase-painting, of Hera. On Epiktetos’ cup in Rome with the fight and psychostasia Eos and Thetis run to two seated figures, Zeus and his consort, Hera.
There is no painter’s signature on the Melbourne stamnos, but it can be attributed to Hermonax on grounds of style. Certain details are characteristic: the wide-open eye with large black dot for the eyeball; the shape of the ear and nostril; the ankle in the form of a rough right-angled triangle, which is a legacy from Hermonax’s master, the Berlin Painter.46 Another, later pupil of the Berlin Painter was the Achilles Painter whose work is represented in the National Gallery by two lekythoi: D93/1971 (white-ground) and D394/1980 (red-figure). Equally characteristic are the long, even relief lines on the garments. Hermonax is one of the major painters of the Early Classical period (c. 480–450 B.C.) and our vase is a mature work, to be dated about 470 B.C. His tall, precise figures with their elegance and charm are representative of the best Athenian painting in these years, not long before the building of the Parthenon.
II South Italian
5. Early Paestan red-figured bell-krater (Figs 20–28)
The acquisition in 1980, through the Felton Bequest, of an Early Paestan bell-krater,47 Accession no. D391/1980. Felton Bequest. Ht 35.5, diam. of mouth 34.7, of foot 16.6. A history of Paestan vase-painting is given in A. D. Trendall, Paestan Pottery, BSR, 1936, with supplements and addenda in BSR, 20, 1952, pp. 1–53 and 27, 1959, pp. 1–37 (= PP, PPSupp, and PAdd); see also Pestani, Vasi, in Enc. Arte Antica (pp. 90–94, with bibliography). Recent discoveries both in Sicily and at Paestum itself have made the existing publications somewhat out of date and a revised edition of PP is in preparation. The relations between Early Paestan and Sicilian are touched upon in LCS, pp. 194 ff„ and briefly in an article in Quaderni Ticinesi, 9, 1980, pp. 111–13, where the Melbourne vase is listed. filled a major gap in the Gallery’s collection of South Italian vases, which did not previously include an example of the Paestan style, although the other four main fabrics (Lucanian, Apulian, Campanian and Sicilian) were well represented.
Paestum, the ancient Greek Poseidonia, is situated on the west coast of Italy in the Gulf of Salerno just under a hundred kilometres south of Naples, and was founded around the middle of the 7th century B.C. by Greek colonists from Sybaris. Thanks to the fertility of the surrounding plains and to its advantageous location for trading purposes, the town achieved a high measure of prosperity, to which the substantial extant remains of three large Doric temples still bear witness. Early in the 4th century, however, it was captured by the Lucanians, who lived in the hills behind, and remained under their occupation until the Romans conquered the city in 273 B.C. and established a colony there. The Lucanians had renamed the city Paiston and this was romanised to Paestum, the name by which the site is usually known.
During the second half of the 4th century B.C. a flourishing pottery industry seems to have developed at Paestum, probably under the influence of Asteas and Python, two vase-painters of considerable importance, known to us by name from their signatures on a dozen vases (ten by Asteas, two by Python). The practice of signing vases, either as potter or as painter, while common in Athens during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., died out almost completely in the 4th, and in South Italy seems to have been confined to the two Paestan artists, since the signature of Lasimos on a Late Apulian volute-krater in the Louvre48 Louvre Κ 66; Favier, Revue du Louvre 22, 1972, pp. 1–6; RVAp, II, no. 28/36. is highly suspect. The work of Asteas and Python, who were obviously very close collaborators, has a thoroughly characteristic style and clearly exercised a very strong influence upon that of their successors. Typical of Paestan is a fondness for the bell-krater, mostly with two figures on each side, normally Dionysos with a satyr, maenad or comic (phlyax) actor on the obverse, and, almost invariably, with two draped youths on the reverse. They are generally of stocky build and are draped in cloaks (himatia), which, except in the early stages of the fabric, regularly have a dot-stripe border. Paestan vase-painters seem to have a particular liking for this form of drapery decoration, since a double dot-stripe will often also be found running down the garments of the female figures, as on the maenad on our vase.
Another very characteristic Paestan device, and one that serves almost immediately to identify a vase as belonging to that fabric, is the use of detached side-scrolls with fan-palmettes to serve as a frame for the pictures. The Melbourne krater illustrates an interesting intermediate stage in the process of their development (Figs 21–22). At first a side-scroll emerges from the base of the large fan beneath the handles; above the central scroll is a diamond-shaped floral, and below it a single curved leaf; on our vase these appear on the reverse, but on the obverse we see small fan-palmettes above and below the central scroll, which leads us to the second stage, where such scrolls and fans appear on both sides; the final stage occurs when the side-scroll with its fan-palmettes becomes completely separated from the handle-palmettes and stands independently as a frame for the pictures.49 The different stages in the development of the framing palmettes are illustrated in PP, p. 10, fig. 2 (see fig. 19 here). Good examples of the first stage may be seen on the bell-kraters S. Agata 66 (LCS, p. 206, no. 45), Louvre Κ 240 (PP, fig. 14) and Louvre Κ 241 (LCS, p. 206, no. 44), where the affinities with Sicilian and with Early Campanian (e.g. Naples 2074 and 2097 = LCS, p. 206, nos 41–42) are especially close. The second stage (joined side-scrolls, with fans) appears on the bell-krater once on the Los Angeles market (Summa Galleries, inv. 82; Cat. I, no. 38 = figs 22–23), and on B.M. F 88 (PP, no. 36, pl. 10a, where attributed to Asteas). A variation on this type of frame, but again illustrating the process of separation from the handle palmettes, will be found on Basel Z 313 (PAdd, no. A 11, pl. 2a-b), Madrid 11037 (PPSupp, no. 66, pl. 6c), and the phlyax vase in Salerno (PAdd, no. A7; P. C. Sestieri, Arch. Class., 12, 1960, pls 40–42; Ill. Gr. Drama, IV, 31; PhV2, no. 58, pl. 3b; here fig. 21). This device, with some later modifications, lasts throughout the life of the fabric, although on larger vases, especially with mythological or stage-inspired scenes, a reserved stripe on either side of the picture is used to provide a frame.
The terracotta of Paestan vases is normally a warm shade of reddish to orange brown, and the colour is often heightened by the application of a deep pink wash (miltos), traces of which are visible on our vase, especially on the body of Dionysos, on the reserved areas below the handles, and, most notably, under the white hair of the comic mask held by the maenad, where the added pink shows up with particular clarity. Added white is extensively used for minor details on the obverse; the youth to right on the reverse originally had a white wreath on his head (cf. Fig. 24), but this has now almost completely vanished. Otherwise the vase is intact and in a remarkably good state of preservation.
The subject of the obverse (Figs 20, 26) is of special interest since it provides an excellent illustration of the connection between Dionysos, who was the god of drama as well as of wine, and the theatre. On the left stands the god, in youthful form, holding a thyrsus in his right hand and a phiale, shown in added white and yellow to simulate the metal of the original, in his left; a small bell, also in added white, hangs down from that wrist. Over both arms and behind his back is a piece of drapery, with the characteristic dot-stripe border; round his head is a dotted fillet with white ivy-leaves in front and white ribbons on the ends. In front of him stands a maenad, her left leg crossed in front of the right, in a relaxed pose, resting her left arm on a tall square pillar with a white outer edge. She wears a peplos, fastened on the right shoulder by a white brooch; it reaches to her knees, and has an overfall below the waist. Down the middle runs a double dot-stripe. Over this garment she wears a fawn-skin dappled with black and white dots. Her hair is bound up in a beaded sphendone, with a radiate diadem above the brow; she has bracelets on both arms, and wears slippers, enlivened by white dots. In her extended right hand she holds a small spray of white-leafed ivy; between her left arm and her body rests a white-stemmed thyrsus, like that of Dionysos, but with a white-dotted fillet tied just below the head. In her left hand she holds a white-haired phlyax mask.
Our collection contains an excellent example of one of the so-called phlyax vases,50 D14/1973. Art Bull. Vict. 1975, pp. 11–15, figs 1–2; Trendall, Greek Vases in the N.G.V., p. 26, pl. 14b. On phlyax vases see, in particular, M. Bieber, History of the Greek and Roman Theater, 2nd ed., Princeton, 1961, pp. 129–46; Trendall, Phlyax Vases, 2nd ed., B.I.C.S., Suppl. 19; London, 1967; id. and T. B. L. Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama, London, 1971, pp. 11–13 and 137 ff. See also Webster (revised by J. R. Green), Monuments Illustrating Old and Middle Comedy, 3rd ed., B.I.C.S., Suppl. 39; London, 1978, where a list of mask-types is given on pp. 13 ff. on which we may see one of the actors wearing a not dissimilar mask to the one held by the maenad. This vase is Campanian, but phlyax scenes are common to all the South Italian fabrics and are of the greatest importance for the light they shed upon the comic stage in the 4th century. On the Paestan krater the mask is Type L, that of the old man, with slightly receding white hair and a longish beard. Phlyakes wearing this mask appear on several vases which are either by the same painter as the Melbourne krater or else very closely associated with it in style. Into the first group we may put the broken rhyton Syracuse 29966,51 PPSupp, no. 60, pl. 5 a; PhV2, no. 134 (where bibliography); K. Schauenburg, Wandlungen, Waldsassen, 1975, pl. 37a-b. the fragment in a German private collection (Fig. 28),52 Schauenburg, op. cit., p. 189, pl. 36a. followed by two vases, which have been assigned to Asteas himself, the bell-krater British Museum F 18853 PP, no. 36, pl. 10a; PhV2, no. 38.and the krater from Pontecagnano in Salerno with Phrynis and Pyronides (Fig. 27),54 See note 3. the reverses of which are very close to that of the Melbourne krater. A similar mask also appears on the phlyax krater in Berlin,55 F 3044; PP, pl. 5b; PhV2, no. 76 (where bibliography). which is signed by Asteas.
On the reverse (Fig. 23), as on most other Paestan bell-kraters of this type, are two draped youths. Both are completely enveloped in their ample himatia, and on the youth to right it has been drawn up to cover the back of his head, as it does on the reverse of B.M. F 188 and a bell-krater once on the Los Angeles market (Summa Galleries, inv. 82 = Figs 24–25), to which references have been made in regard to the side-scrolls on both and the phlyax on the former. It may be noted that, at this comparatively early stage of Paestan, the borders of the youths’ cloaks are plain black, and not the dot-stripe, which later becomes one of the ‘hall-marks’ of the fabric. The actual draping of the cloak over the body of the youth on the right also finds a very close parallel on the two vases just mentioned; we note the bent left arm, over which the cloak is draped to give the effect of something like a ‘sleeve’, with a bracket-shaped black border, which reappears on several other vases associated with the Melbourne krater (e.g. Summa 82 = Fig. 24; B.M. F 188, Basel Ζ 313), as well as on many which look to be unsigned vases by Asteas or products of his workshop.56 See PP, pl. 10, for a selection of typical examples.
The significant quantity of new material now at our disposal from the excavations at Paestum and on the island of Lipari will necessitate some revision of the existing accounts of the early stages in the development of both Paestan and Campanian vase-painting, the connection of both of which with Sicilian being now much more clearly defined. We are now in a position to establish direct connecting links between some of the vases from Lipari, like the calyx-kraters 9558 and 9604,57 Castello di Lipari, 2nd ed., p. 126, fig. 122. and the earliest Paestan, like S. Agata 66 or Louvre Κ 240 (see note 3), through the presence of the white-bearded satyr (cf. also Basel Ζ 313) or the hanging female masks (cf. also the phlyax krater in Berlin signed by Asteas), as well as by resemblances in the rendering of the drapery, especially in the use of a dot-stripe border, and in the drawing of the heads. We have already noted that the Melbourne krater provides, through the side-scrolls on each side of the pictures, a connecting link between the S. Agata and Louvre kraters and Summa 82 and B.M. F 188, which in their turn lead on to the standard Paestan framing palmettes, as on the minor vases attributed to Asteas; further, the phlyax mask is also associated with those on several vases either by, or attributed to, Asteas and we would therefore probably be right in thinking that the Melbourne krater, together with the other vases which form part of the connected chain we have discussed above, are in fact early works by Asteas himself, since between them they illustrate so many of the features which are characteristic of his more developed style, notably in the treatment of the drapery and of the youths on the reverses, in the rendering of the phlyax masks and in the pattern-work. The Melbourne vase provides us with perhaps the most crucial of all the links in the chain.58 The chain may be summarised as follows: (i) Lipari 9558 and 9604; (ii) S. Agata 66; Louvre K 240; Melbourne D391/1980; (iii) Los Angeles market, Summa 82; B.M. F 188; and the related phlyax vases, Syracuse 29966 and the fragment, here fig. 20.
6. Late Apulian oenochoe of the White Saccos Group (Figs 29–31)
In 1979 the Gallery acquired, again through the Felton Bequest, a remarkable Late Apulian oenochoe (Figs 29, 31) from the workshop of the White Saccos Painter,59 Accession no. D28/1979; Felton Bequest. Ht to top of handle 46, to edge of mouth 37.2, to top of figured scene 26.8; max. width 18. The White Saccos Painter is dealt with in detail in RVAp II, ch. 29. representing two Erotes adjusting a crimson veil on the head of Aphrodite, which rises from a flower in an elaborate floral setting. The central scene (Fig. 29) is rendered in added colours – mainly white, red and shades of orange, as on vases of the so-called Gnathia style (cf. the Melbourne squat lekythos, D17/1972) – but most of the subsidiary decoration is in the red-figure technique.
The vase itself, which is an oenochoe of the type usually referred to as ‘shape 1’, has an ovoid body, a long neck and a high handle; it is comparatively well preserved, with a few traces of retouching on the central figures. The shape has a fairly long history in Greek vase-painting; it appears in Athens from the end of the 6th century B.C. onwards, with a number of variations in the treatment of mouth, neck, body and foot as the red-figured style develops;60 See J. R. Green in Arch. Anz. 1978, pp. 262–72, and, for Apulia in particular, G. Sena Chiesa in Archaeologica: Studi in onore di Aldo Neppi Modona, Florence, 1975, pp. 423 ff. in South Italy oenochoai of shape 1 are comparatively rare except in Apulia where, from the middle of the 4th century onwards, they become increasingly popular, especially in the workshop of the Baltimore Painter, of which the White Saccos Painter and the other artists of that group must have been members. Most of these oenochoai have been found at or near Canosa, where in all probability the workshop was located. There is a wealth of evidence from the vase-paintings themselves to show that oenochoai of shape 1 were regularly used for the pouring of libations, especially to Dionysos, to a departing warrior, or at the tomb of the deceased.61 Good illustrations of its use may be seen on RVAp I, pls 111,4, 114,1, 120,5, 139,3, and, for funerary purposes, in H. Lohmann, Grabmaeler, Berlin, 1979, pls 9,2, 33,1, 51,3, or actually within the naiskos on pls 26,2, 29,2, 39. The earlier Apulian examples, which come from around the middle of the 4th century, have proportions midway between those of their Attic prototypes and of Late Apulian where, as with the Melbourne vase, the neck is taller and more slender and the body tends to become a little narrower.
On the back of our vase there is a large red-figure palmette complex, with side-tendrils and scrolls, interspersed with half fan-palmettes; the neck is decorated with two stripes in added white below which large white rays descend on to the shoulder, on which there is a band of many-petalled rosettes with yellow centres divided by forked sprigs, with yellow dots at the ends and in the centre. Below the design a band of wave-pattern encircles the whole vase; there is a reserved stripe at the join of the stem, and the foot is moulded in three degrees, with the rim left reserved. The ridged handle is ornamented with two plastic female masks, one in black just above the trefoil mouth, the other, partly in black and partly reserved, at the shoulder attachment.
The central group on the Melbourne oenochoe (Fig. 29) is painted in added white, crimson-red, and shades of orange; white is used for the naked bodies of the Erotes, the face of Aphrodite and for decorative details; the veil over the head and falling down on each side of Aphrodite’s neck is deep crimson-red, patterned with white dot-clusters; the Eros to left has one white wing with orange details and one orange, in varying shades; the wings of the other, folded together behind his back, have an upper area in white, then a reserved zone decorated with black dots, and white tips to the feathers. Aphrodite’s hair is shown as a series of waves in two shades of orange, rising from a flat mass above the brow; there is a crimson ribbon over this mass, and above it the hair is decorated by a series of white lotus-buds, with the effect of a diadem or tiara. A long curling lock of hair in dark orange runs down the neck beside the ear on the left-hand side. The two Erotes stand, with one leg flexed, on each side of the head in a heraldic pose; the right hand of one and the left hand of the other is extended to grasp the veil over Aphrodite’s head, the other hand holds a necklace of white beads. Their bodies are outlined in a deep orange, which is also used for the hair which emerges from the kekryphaloi on their heads. The head of Aphrodite springs from a large campanula flower, the petals of which turn slightly inward as if to give it support; below and beside the flower are scroll-like stems, which branch out and upward on either side to form an elaborate floral design with white spiralling tendrils through which slender stems thread their way to emerge in a large open flower (Fig. 31). The floral decoration is partly in added white, partly in red-figure, and is, of course, extremely typical of later Apulian, where it is very frequently to be seen on the necks of volute-kraters (cf. D88/1969) or the shoulders of amphorae and loutrophoroi.
Eros appears very frequently in Apulian vase-painting;62 See, in particular, W. D. Albert, Darstellungen des Eros in Unteritalien, Amsterdam, 1979; G. Schneider-Herrmann, ‘Spuren eines Eroskultes in der italischen Vasenmalerei’, in BABesch 45, 1970, pp. 86–117; P. Zancani Montuoro, ‘La pariglia di Afrodite’, in Opuscula Carolo Kerenyi dedicata, Stockholm, 1968, pp. 15–23; see also H. R. W. Smith, Funerary Symbolism in Apulian Vase-painting (= FS; Berkeley, Calif., 1972), s.v. Aphrodite and Eros in the Index. especially at the side of Aphrodite in mythological and bridal scenes. The goddess is also often shown in the company of a pair of winged figures, usually designated as Erotes, who may escort her in flight,63 See G. Schneider-Herrmann, ‘Im Fluge mit zwei Eroten’, in BABesch 48, 1968, pp. 59–69, where Ruvo 1613 (fig. 1), Louvre S 4047 (fig. 5) and K 95 (fig. 6) are given as examples. These are all Apulian (RVAp, nos 23/39, 18/105 and 15/21); another splendid example will be seen in the name vase of the Aphrodite Painter at Paestum (inv. 21370; E. Greco, Il Pittore di Afrodite, Benevento, 1970, p. 14, pls 1 and 3). draw her chariot64 Good illustrations will be found on the calyx-krater Taranto 107936 by the Lecce Painter (RVAp, I, no. 5/212; Albert, fig. 39), the Chamay pelike in Geneva (op. cit., no. 16/57, pl. 156,1), the pelikai Turin 4149 and Compiegne 963 by the Darius Painter (RVAp, II, nos 18/25–6), the pelikai Naples 3224 and Moscow 746 (op. cit., nos 18/127–8) in the Group of the Copenhagen Dancer, which is closely associated with that artist, on the pelike Taranto 54048 (= op. cit., no. 18/381) by a late follower of the Underworld Painter, and on a dish by the Baltimore Painter formerly in the Ruesch collection (op. cit., no. 27/69; G. Schneider-Herrmann, Paterae, B.I.C.S. Suppl. 34, London, 1977, no. 160, pl. 15,2). Sometimes one of the winged figures is female and the other male, as on the oenochoe Taranto 100777 by the Truro Painter (RVAp I, no. 5/136; Albert, p. 19, fig. 42; Zancani Montuoro, op. cit., p. 17, fig. 4), in which case one may be Nike and the other Eros, or more probably they are Iris and Zephyros, as Erika Simon has suggested in the light of the reliefs on a couple of small terracotta altars in Taranto, where the waves of the sea are clearly shown (Die Geburt der Aphrodite, figs 13–14; Albert, figs 4 and 7; Zancani Montuoro, loc. cit., fig. 2). or just stand by as attendants, in which case she may be represented in symbolic form as a female head, as on the Melbourne vase. This type, in which only the head, or the upper part of the body, of Aphrodite is shown appears on a number of terracottas in S. Italy from the early 5th century B.C. onwards65e.g. Albert, op. cit., figs 21–4; R. A. Higgins, B.M. Cat. Terracottas, pp. 334–35, pl. 169, 1–2. and from these, which become increasingly common in the 4th century, it was an easy transition to the similar representations on vases, either as subsidiary decoration (e.g. on the necks of volute-kraters) or as the main subject. The former will be found on the works of a comparatively wide range of vase-painters,66 Good examples will be found on the necks of the following volute-kraters (references in all cases are to RVAp II): New York 17.120.240 (no. 23/231, pl. 280); Trieste S 382 (no. 18/2); Louvre K 66 (no. 28/36, pl. 350); Bari 5587 (no. 28/42); B.M. F 278 (no. 28/118); Milan, ‘HA.’ coll. 306 (no. 23/16); Ruvo 1092 (no. 23/226); reverse of Leningrad 1717 (no. 28/117); on the shoulders of the amphorae Naples 3221 and 3218 (nos 18/43 and 46), and in the tondo of the dishes Lecce 855 (no. 29/186) and Naples 3377 (no. 29/187), both of which belong to the White Saccos Group, like our oenochoe. the latter are largely confined to the vases of the White Saccos Group, and to either kantharoi or oenochoai.67 These vases are listed in RVAp II, ch. 29, nos 101–13, 115–16. An oenochoe recently on the Basel market68 Muenzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56, 19 Feb. 1980, no. 117 (ill.) = RVAp II, no. 29/116, pl. 380,8. (Fig. 30) is typical of this sort of decoration and provides a good parallel to the head on our vase.
The White Saccos Painter, who takes his name from the white saccos which covers the heads of many of the women depicted on his vases, and to whose hand the vase may be ascribed, is perhaps the most important of the later Apulian vase-painters. His connection with the Baltimore Painter, whose pupil he must have been, emerges in the close correspondence in the drapery and drawing of many of his figures, as well as in the treatment of the floral decoration, but his taste runs more in the direction of smaller vases, decorated with women, youths and Erotes or with female heads, than of the monumental volute-kraters, amphorae and hydriai which the Baltimore Painter and some of his other followers seem to have preferred. Many of the vases by the White Saccos Painter have a red-figured female head on the reverse and these link him closely to the Kantharos Group,69 On the Kantharos Group see A. Cambitoglou, JHS 74, 1954, pp. 116–18; the vases are listed in RVAp II, nos 29/17–34, 355–917. since exactly similar heads are to be found on the hundreds of vases which may now be assigned to it.
Another noteworthy element in the vases of the later 4th century is the growing effeminancy of Eros, who on some of them becomes almost hermaphroditic.70 See Martin Robertson, History of Greek Art, Cambridge, 1975, p. 551; K. J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality, London, 1979, p. 72. He is usually bedecked with a good deal of jewellery and, from the neck upwards, with the typical feminine adornments of necklace, earrings and kekryphalos, is barely distinguishable from those heads flanked by wings which are often taken to represent Nike, but which, at least in some cases, might well be identified with Eros.71 Smith, Funerary Symbolism, p. 54; Cambitoglou, JHS 74, 1954, p. 121. On other vases (e.g. Lecce 855; Naples 2541 and 2646) he becomes little more than a decorative element in the floral pattern-work, the precursor of the putti of later Hellenistic and Roman art.
The Melbourne oenochoe, which may be dated to the last decades of the 4th century (c. 320–310 B.C.), is a vase of considerable stylistic significance, since, in its use of added colours for the main scene, it clearly demonstrates the close connection between the red-figure and the Gnathia styles at this period, as well as illustrating the changing artistic approach which is now becoming increasingly manifest and which leads on to the new techniques and different treatment that characterise the vase-decoration of the Hellenistic age.
Acknowledgments
We should like to express our thanks for their help to Terence Lane and Margaret Legge of the Department of Decorative Arts in the National Gallery of Victoria, and to Dr Ursula Hoff; and for photographs of comparative material to Dr Jane Cody of the Summa Galleries, to Prof. K. Schauenburg and to Dr Cornelius Vermeule.
A. D. Trendall, La Trobe University (in 1980).
Ian McPhee, La Trobe University (in 1980).
Notes
All dimensions are given in centimetres. The following abbreviations are used for works to which frequent reference is made in the notes:
ABV J. D. Beazley. Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 1956.
Arias/ P. E. Arias. M. Hirmer and Β. B. Shefton, A History of Greek Vase Painting, London, 1962. Hirmer.
ARV2 J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, 2nd ed„ Oxford, 1963.
BSR Papers of the British School at Rome.
CVA Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum.
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies.
LCS A. D. Trendall, The Red-figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily, Oxford, 1967.
PhV2 A. D. Trendall, Phlyax Vases, 2nd ed., B.I.C.S. Supplement 19, London, 1967.
RVAp A. D. Trendall and Alexander Cambitoglou, The Red-figured Vases of Apulia, Oxford, vol I, 1978; II, 1981.
1 The comments on nos 1, 3 and 4 were written by Dr Ian McPhee and on nos 2, 5 and 6 by Professor A. D Trendall.
2 ‘Notes on the Vases at Castle Ashby’, in BSR 11, 1929, pp. 1–29, pls 1–11. The Sale Catalogue of the collection (Christie’s, London, 2 July 1980) illustrates all the vases, many in colour, with descriptive notes abridged from the fuller publication in the CVA.
3 Accession no. D67/1980. Ht 36.3–36.7; diam. of mouth 16.6, of foot at outer edge, 11. The terracotta is well levigated, hard, and pale brown in colour; the glaze greenish-black with a slight sheen. For Protogeometric pottery see V. R. d’A. Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery, Oxford, 1952 (= PGP). For Geometric pottery see J. N. Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery, London, 1968. On these periods in general see A. M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece, Edinburgh, 1971; V. R. d’A. Desborough, The Greek Dark Ages, London, 1972; J. N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece, London, 1977.
4 A small area on the obverse below the third group of strokes has been restored.
5 The others are the belly-handled amphora: Arias/Hirmer, pl. 1; the neck-handled amphora: B. Schweitzer, Greek Geometric Art, London, 1971, fig. 5; the amphora with handles from shoulder to lip: K. Kuebler, Kerameikos IV, Berlin, 1943, pl. 8.
6 See W. Kraiker and K. Kuebler, Kerameikos I, Berlin, 1939, pl. 61 and p. 91 (inv. 531; ht 26.3).
7 Desborough’s suggestion: PGP, pp. 30 and 37.
8 e.g. Kerameikos inv. 825, Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery, pi. 5g.
9 The underside of the handles and the area below each handle are reserved; the inside of the neck is reserved (wheelmarks visible) except for the first centimetre; the edge of the foot is glazed, the resting surface and underside of the vase reserved. There are no signs of wear at the lip.
10 e.g. Arias/Hirmer, pl. 1, or PGP, pls 4–5.
11 For examples of Protogeometric shoulder-handled amphorae see PGP, pl. 6 (Kerameikos inv. 610); Kerameikos I, pl. 45 (Kerameikos inv. 595); PGP, pl. 6 (Kerameikos inv. 2131). The transition to Geometric is discussed by Coldstream, Greek Geometric Pottery, pp. 8–10.
12 Accession no. D393/1980; Felton Bequest. Ht 15; diam. of mouth 20.3, of foot 10. CVA, Castle Ashby, p. 18 (where bibliography); Sale Cat., Christie’s, 2 July 1980, p. 99, no. 58 (ill.).
13 A. D. Trendall, Greek Vases in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1978, p. 6, pl. 4b; Art Bull. Vict. 1970–71, pp. 1–2, figs 1–2. Ex Sotheby, Sale Cat., 14 Nov. 1966, no. 122, ill. opp. p. 58.
14 ABV, p. 165. The other cups are Cambridge 63, Florence 70996, Munich 2332, Oxford 231, and Louvre C 10261.
15 J. D. Beazley, The Development of Attic Black-figure, London, 1951, p. 73. On Nicosthenes see also John Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, London, 1974, pp. 64–65, with a bibliography on p. 236.
16 See most recently Tom Rasmussen, Bucchero Pottery from Southern Etruria, Cambridge, 1979, pp. 74–75 and 168; Monika Verzar, ‘Eine Gruppe etruskischer Bandhenkelamphoren’, Antike Kunst, 16, 1973, pp. 45–56. For Etruscan influence on the decoration of Attic Nicosthenic neck-amphorae see D. A. Jackson, East Greek Influence on Attic Vases, London, 1976, p. 38.
17 Accession no. D392/1980; Felton Bequest. Ht 30.4-30.6. Diam. of mouth 13, of foot 10.6. Ht of neck 9.8; width of handles 5.5 (at base) – 6 (at top). J. D. Beazley, ABV, p. 221, no. 40 (Painter N, various); John Boardman in CVA, Castle Ashby, pl. 19,1–3 and p. 11 (where the earlier bibliography is cited); Christie’s Sale Cat., 2 July 1980, pp. 130–31, no. 84; John Boardman, The Greeks Overseas, 3rd ed., London, 1980, p. 201, fig. 238. The height of the Melbourne vase is normal for Nicosthenic neck-amphorae. Most fall between 28 and 33 cm.
18 CVA, p. 11; no further account is there given of the condition of the vase.
19 Cf. J. D. Beazley, BSR 11, 1929, p. 6.
20 ‘Most have red on their bodies and a white belly line, but some are all black and one has only the white belly line’, CVA, p. 11, repeated in the Sale Catalogue, p. 130. This description is not quite correct; a careful study will show the original arrangement.
21 See D. A. Jackson, op. cit.. p. 70. The influence is no less visible in sculpture. The third quarter of the 6th century was the heyday of the rule of Peisistratos, who seems to have encouraged Ionian craftsmen to work in Athens.
22 The edges of the handles are black, the undersides reserved. The inside of the neck is also reserved, except for the first 4 cm, which are black.
23 ABV, p. 221, no. 45; CVA, Louvre 4, III He, pl. 35,16.
24 The combination of linked buds above rays is taken from the normal decoration of the lower body of standard neck-amphorae: see, for example, Arias/Hirmer, pls XVIII and XXII.
25 Hanover 1961.23, J. D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1970 (= Para.), p. 106, no. 58 bis; CVA, Hanover 1. pi. 17.
26 Basel, Ludwig Collection, E. Berger and R. Lullies, Antike Kunstwerke aus der Sammlung Ludwig I, Basel, 1979, pp. 64–67, no. 23, Para., p. 105, no. 43 bis; once Roman Market, ABV, p. 225, no. 12; Malibu 68. AE. 19, J. Paul Getty Museum Journal I, 1974, pp. 43–54, Para., p. 106; Vatican 363, ABV, p. 221, no. 43; Paris, Petit Palais 303, ABV, p. 221, no. 38; Brussels R 388, ABV, p. 217, no. 11.
27 See the neck-amphorae, British Museum Β 264 and Β 266, CVA, B.M. 4, pl. 65,1 and 2, ABV, p. 288, no. 19, and p. 273, no. 118, and the remarks by Mary Moore and Dietrich von Bothmer, CVA, New York 4, p. 54.
28 The Munich cup: Arias/Hirmer, pls XVI and 59. D. A. Jackson, op. cit., pp. 60–68, has argued strongly for the derivation of the Attic decoration from East Greek pottery via Chalcidian eye-cups. He has useful comments on the origin, form and function of these eyes. For eye-cups potted by Nicosthenes, see A. D. Ure, JHS 42, 1922, pp. 193–94.
29 But rarely on Nicosthenic neck-amphorae: see Paris, Petit Palais 303, ABV, p. 221, no. 38. The decoration of the Melbourne vase shows another connection with that of black-figure cups. The upright palmettes on the shoulder, connected by long stems to the handles, are not unlike those that occur, in the middle and third quarter of the 6th century, next to handles of Little Master cups such as that by Hermogenes (see above, no. 2).
30 On trademarks see A. W. Johnston, Trademarks on Greek Vases, Warminster, 1979, especially p. 22. The graffito is not mentioned in CVA. For the bell-krater D1/1976 see Art Bull. Vict. 1976, p. 44, and Trendall, Greek Vases in the N.G.V., p. 10.
31 Trendall, Greek Vases In the N.G.V., pp. 7–8, pl. 5.
32 D. von Bothmer, Gnomon 39, 1967, p. 813, in a review of Barbara Philippaki, The Attic Stamnos, Oxford, 1967. For stamnoi see also C. Isler-Kerenyi, Stamnoi, Lugano, 1976; eadem, ‘Stamnoi e Stamnoidi’, Quaderni Ticinesi 5, 1976, pp. 33–52; eadem and F. Causey-Frel, Stamnoi, Malibu, 1980. In the 5th century at least ‘stamnos’ seems to have been the name for the shape that is now conventionally called ‘pelike’; see Johnston, Trademarks on Greek Vases, p. 32.
33 Philippaki, op. cit., pp. 1–2 and pl. 1, begins her discussion with a stamnoid vase now in the Niarchus Collection in Paris, to be dated c. 560–550 B.C. The shape, however, has unusual elements, and even its Attic origin has been doubted: Isler-Kerenyi, Quaderni Ticinesi 5, 1976, p. 33, note 2; see also Jackson, op. cit , p. 7, and p. 8, fig. 8.
34 Accession no. D64/1980. Acquired with the generous assistance of the National Bank of Australasia Limited, Governor, The Art Foundation of Victoria. Ht 31.5; with lid 37. Diam. of mouth 17.3, of lid 16.3, of base 12.3. Published in Muenzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56, Basel, 19 Feb. 1980, no. 98, pp. 47–48, pl. 43, and colour frontispiece.
35 Philippaki, op. cit., pp. 36–46. Hermonax also decorates his own special type of stamnos: Philippaki, pp. 46–48.
36 On lids in general see D. von Bothmer, ‘Lids by Andokides’, Berliner Museen 14, 1964, pp. 38–41.
37 Rome, Villa Giulia 5241, ARV2, p. 484, 9; Leningrad 803 (St. 1692) and 804 (St. 1711), ARV2, p. 484, 15 and 16; A. Peredolskaya, Krasnofigurnye Attischeskie Vazy, Leningrad, 1967, pls 80 and 81.
38 For an early example see the main zone on the Francois Vase, ABV, p. 76,1, Arias/Hirmer, pls 40–46.
39 See J. D. Beazley, The Berlin Painter, Melbourne, 1964, p. 7, where this principle of pattern is called ULFA (= upper, lower, facing alternately). On the Melbourne stamnos the painter began the pattern below the forward foot of the woman under the left handle; he ended with a saltire-square and three stopt meanders to right.
40 See R. M. Cook, CVA, British Museum 8, p. 54 on pl. 5; P. E. Corbett, The British Museum Quarterly 24, 1961. pp. 97–98; E. Knauer, Ein Skyphos des Triptolemosmalers, Berlin, 1973, p. 9, and p. 22, note 24. The shield-apron is first seen in East Greek art about 550 B.C. and appears in Attic vase-painting from the end of the 6th century until about 430 B.C.
41 A. M. Snodgrass, Arms and Armour of the Greeks, London, 1967, p. 95 and pl. 53.
42 The stomach muscles and rib-cage are drawn in diluted glaze which is used elsewhere on the male figures for anatomical lines on arms and legs.
43 See also Iliad VIII. 69–74 and XVI. 658.
44 They are: (1) Rome, Villa Giulia, black-figured hydria perhaps by an East Greek artist resident in Etruria, K. Schefold, Goetter- und Heldensagen der Griechen in der spaetarchaischen Kunst, Munich, 1978, figs 324–25, c. 530 B.C.; (2) Vienna 3619, Attic black-figured dinos by the Painter of the Vatican Mourner, ABV, p. 140, no. 3; E. Simon, Die Geburt der Aphrodite, Berlin, 1959, p. 74, c. 530 B.C.; (3) Rome, Villa Giulia 57912, Attic red-figured cup by Epiktetos, ARV2, p. 72, no. 24; Schefold, op. cit., fig. 322, c. 510 B.C.; (4) Paris, Cab. Med. 385 and Bonn 143b, fragments of an Attic red-figured volute-krater by the Kleophrades Painter, ARV2, p. 186, no. 50, c. 500–490 B.C.; (5) London, B.M. Β 639, Attic black-figured lekythos by the Sappho Painter, J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases, London, 1974, fig. 261, c. 490 B.C.; (6) Boston 10.177, Attic red-figured stamnos by the Syracuse Painter, ARV2, p. 518, no. 1, here fig. 15, c. 470–460 B.C.; (7) Paris, Louvre CA 2243, Attic red-figured Nolan amphora by the Nikon Painter, ARV2, p. 651, no. 11; Simon, op. cit., p. 77, c. 460 B.C.; (8) Paris, Louvre G 399, Attic red-figured cup, Simon, op. cit., p. 79, c. 470-450 B.C.; (9) Leiden AMM 1, Campanian red-figured neck-amphora by the Ixion Painter, Trendall, LCS, p. 339, no. 800, c. 330 B.C. On the psychostasia see J. D Beazley in Caskey and Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 3, Boston, 1963, pp. 44–46; more recently Emily Vermeule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry, Berkeley, 1979, pp. 76–77 and 160–62; and K. Friis Johansen, The Iliad in Early Greek Art, Copenhagen, 1967, pp. 260–61.
45 This is not the interpretation favoured in Muenzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56, Basel, 1980, pp. 47–48, where Hector is preferred. In this case the woman behind the warrior ought to be Hekabe. This is very unlikely. If the scenes were derived from the Iliad, Zeus should hold the scales.
46 Another, later pupil of the Berlin Painter was the Achilles Painter whose work is represented in the National Gallery by two lekythoi: D93/1971 (white-ground) and D394/1980 (red-figure).
47 Accession no. D391/1980. Felton Bequest. Ht 35.5, diam. of mouth 34.7, of foot 16.6. A history of Paestan vase-painting is given in A. D. Trendall, Paestan Pottery, BSR, 1936, with supplements and addenda in BSR, 20, 1952, pp. 1–53 and 27, 1959, pp. 1–37 (= PP, PPSupp, and PAdd); see also Pestani, Vasi, in Enc. Arte Antica (pp. 90–94, with bibliography). Recent discoveries both in Sicily and at Paestum itself have made the existing publications somewhat out of date and a revised edition of PP is in preparation. The relations between Early Paestan and Sicilian are touched upon in LCS, pp. 194 ff„ and briefly in an article in Quaderni Ticinesi, 9, 1980, pp. 111–13, where the Melbourne vase is listed.
48 Louvre Κ 66; Favier, Revue du Louvre 22, 1972, pp. 1–6; RVAp, II, no. 28/36.
49 The different stages in the development of the framing palmettes are illustrated in PP, p. 10, fig. 2 (see fig. 19 here). Good examples of the first stage may be seen on the bell-kraters S. Agata 66 (LCS, p. 206, no. 45), Louvre Κ 240 (PP, fig. 14) and Louvre Κ 241 (LCS, p. 206, no. 44), where the affinities with Sicilian and with Early Campanian (e.g. Naples 2074 and 2097 = LCS, p. 206, nos 41–42) are especially close. The second stage (joined side-scrolls, with fans) appears on the bell-krater once on the Los Angeles market (Summa Galleries, inv. 82; Cat. I, no. 38 = figs 22–23), and on B.M. F 88 (PP, no. 36, pl. 10a, where attributed to Asteas). A variation on this type of frame, but again illustrating the process of separation from the handle palmettes, will be found on Basel Z 313 (PAdd, no. A 11, pl. 2a-b), Madrid 11037 (PPSupp, no. 66, pl. 6c), and the phlyax vase in Salerno (PAdd, no. A7; P. C. Sestieri, Arch. Class., 12, 1960, pls 40–42; Ill. Gr. Drama, IV, 31; PhV2, no. 58, pl. 3b; here fig. 21).
50 D14/1973. Art Bull. Vict. 1975, pp. 11–15, figs 1–2; Trendall, Greek Vases in the N.G. V., p. 26, pl. 14b. On phlyax vases see, in particular, M. Bieber, History of the Greek and Roman Theater, 2nd ed., Princeton, 1961, pp. 129–46; Trendall, Phlyax Vases, 2nd ed., B.I.C.S., Suppl. 19; London, 1967; id. and T. B. L. Webster, Illustrations of Greek Drama, London, 1971, pp. 11–13 and 137 ff. See also Webster (revised by J. R. Green), Monuments Illustrating Old and Middle Comedy, 3rd ed., B.I.C.S., Suppl. 39; London, 1978, where a list of mask-types is given on pp. 13 ff.
51 PPSupp, no. 60, pl. 5 a; PhV2, no. 134 (where bibliography); K. Schauenburg, Wandlungen, Waldsassen, 1975, pl. 37a-b.
52 Schauenburg, op. cit., p. 189, pl. 36a.
53 PP, no. 36, pl. 10a; PhV2, no. 38.
54 See note 3.
55 F 3044; PP, pl. 5b; PhV2, no. 76 (where bibliography).
56 See PP, pl. 10, for a selection of typical examples.
57 Castello di Lipari, 2nd ed., p. 126, fig. 122.
58 The chain may be summarised as follows: (i) Lipari 9558 and 9604; (ii) S. Agata 66; Louvre K 240; Melbourne D391/1980; (iii) Los Angeles market, Summa 82; B.M. F 188; and the related phlyax vases, Syracuse 29966 and the fragment, here fig. 20.
59 Accession no. D28/1979; Felton Bequest. Ht to top of handle 46, to edge of mouth 37.2, to top of figured scene 26.8; max. width 18. The White Saccos Painter is dealt with in detail in RVAp II, ch. 29.
60 See J. R. Green in Arch. Anz. 1978, pp. 262–72, and, for Apulia in particular, G. Sena Chiesa in Archaeologica: Studi in onore di Aldo Neppi Modona, Florence, 1975, pp. 423 ff.
61 Good illustrations of its use may be seen on RVAp I, pls 111,4, 114,1, 120,5, 139,3, and, for funerary purposes, in H. Lohmann, Grabmaeler, Berlin, 1979, pls 9,2, 33,1, 51,3, or actually within the naiskos on pls 26,2, 29,2, 39.
62 See, in particular, W. D. Albert, Darstellungen des Eros in Unteritalien, Amsterdam, 1979; G. Schneider-Herrmann, ‘Spuren eines Eroskultes in der italischen Vasenmalerei’, in BABesch 45, 1970, pp. 86–117; P. Zancani Montuoro, ‘La pariglia di Afrodite’, in Opuscula Carolo Kerenyi dedicata, Stockholm, 1968, pp. 15–23; see also H. R. W. Smith, Funerary Symbolism in Apulian Vase-painting (= FS; Berkeley, Calif., 1972), s.v. Aphrodite and Eros in the Index.
63 See G. Schneider-Herrmann, ‘Im Fluge mit zwei Eroten’, in BABesch 48, 1968, pp. 59–69, where Ruvo 1613 (fig. 1), Louvre S 4047 (fig. 5) and K 95 (fig. 6) are given as examples. These are all Apulian (RVAp, nos 23/39, 18/105 and 15/21); another splendid example will be seen in the name vase of the Aphrodite Painter at Paestum (inv. 21370; E. Greco, Il Pittore di Afrodite, Benevento, 1970, p. 14, pls 1 and 3).
64 Good illustrations will be found on the calyx-krater Taranto 107936 by the Lecce Painter (RVAp, I, no. 5/212; Albert, fig. 39), the Chamay pelike in Geneva (op. cit., no. 16/57, pl. 156,1), the pelikai Turin 4149 and Compiegne 963 by the Darius Painter (RVAp, II, nos 18/25–6), the pelikai Naples 3224 and Moscow 746 (op. cit., nos 18/127–8) in the Group of the Copenhagen Dancer, which is closely associated with that artist, on the pelike Taranto 54048 (= op. cit., no. 18/381) by a late follower of the Underworld Painter, and on a dish by the Baltimore Painter formerly in the Ruesch collection (op. cit., no. 27/69; G. Schneider-Herrmann, Paterae, B.I.C.S. Suppl. 34, London, 1977, no. 160, pl. 15,2). Sometimes one of the winged figures is female and the other male, as on the oenochoe Taranto 100777 by the Truro Painter (RVAp I, no. 5/136; Albert, p. 19, fig. 42; Zancani Montuoro, op. cit., p. 17, fig. 4), in which case one may be Nike and the other Eros, or more probably they are Iris and Zephyros, as Erika Simon has suggested in the light of the reliefs on a couple of small terracotta altars in Taranto, where the waves of the sea are clearly shown (Die Geburt der Aphrodite, figs 13–14; Albert, figs 4 and 7; Zancani Montuoro, loc. cit., fig. 2).
65 e.g. Albert, op. cit., figs 21–4; R. A. Higgins, B.M. Cat. Terracottas, pp. 334–35, pl. 169, 1–2.
66 Good examples will be found on the necks of the following volute-kraters (references in all cases are to RVAp II): New York 17.120.240 (no. 23/231, pl. 280); Trieste S 382 (no. 18/2); Louvre K 66 (no. 28/36, pl. 350); Bari 5587 (no. 28/42); B.M. F 278 (no. 28/118); Milan, ‘HA.’ coll. 306 (no. 23/16); Ruvo 1092 (no. 23/226); reverse of Leningrad 1717 (no. 28/117); on the shoulders of the amphorae Naples 3221 and 3218 (nos 18/43 and 46), and in the tondo of the dishes Lecce 855 (no. 29/186) and Naples 3377 (no. 29/187), both of which belong to the White Saccos Group, like our oenochoe.
67 These vases are listed in RVAp II, ch. 29, nos 101–13, 115–16.
68 Muenzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56, 19 Feb. 1980, no. 117 (ill.) = RVAp II, no. 29/116, pl. 380,8.
69 On the Kantharos Group see A. Cambitoglou, JHS 74, 1954, pp. 116–18; the vases are listed in RVAp II, nos 29/17–34, 355–917.
70 See Martin Robertson, History of Greek Art, Cambridge, 1975, p. 551; K. J. Dover, Greek Homosexuality, London, 1979, p. 72.
71 Smith, Funerary Symbolism, p. 54; Cambitoglou, JHS 74, 1954, p. 121.