DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4761#0038
2)2 CATALOGUE OF VASES.
youth, such as bowling the hoop (E 296), whipping tops (Hartwig, Meistersch.
pi. 27), and playing astragali (E 501). It may be noted here that it is only
among the later cup-painters that the youth * as distingushed from the ephebos
begins to figure. Previously to this time, three chief types of the different ages
of man had obtained : the white-haired old man, the bearded man in the prime
of life, and the ephebos. In the cup of Euphronios E 44 we get the old man
bald-headed ; and this, with the two younger types, is well shown on a cup of
Hieron (Frohner, Brantegliem Coll. pi. 21) with a new one added, the bald but
still vigorous man. After this comes yet a fifth type, the boy with long hair not
yet shorn : this type had figured quite early in mythical scenes {e.g. Astyanax
in B 205), but now comes prominently forward with his occupations of daily
life. He is succeeded in popular favour by the mere infant, who is found
specially on the small lekythi and polychrome vases, playing with toys. A
somewhat parallel evolution is shown in the type of Eros on vases, who changes
from that of the full-grown athletic ephebos (E 440) to an infantile figure
painted white like the children just.mentioned, which is the precursor on the one
hand of the Roman Cupid, and on the other (perhaps owing to this white, and
therefore apparently feminine, type) to the androgynous Eros of the later
South Italian vases f (Furtwaengler, Eros in der Vasenmalerei).
In the growing tendency towards a formal style which marks the vases of
Duris and Hieron, we have groups of two or more figures in different attitudes
conversing. Out of these " conversation groups" was gradually evolved a
formal group consisting usually of two athletes draped and confronted, which
did constant duty as the conventional decoration of vases of which the obverse
only was regarded as important.^
Early in the fifth century, the patriotism of the Attic painter finds
expression in the growing importance which he attaches to the legends of
Theseus, the typical Attic hero. This may be seen by reference to the lists
published in Mus. Ital. Ill, p. 210, and Wulff, Theseussage. In the black-figure
style, the repertory of Theseus scenes had been extremely limited: his adventure
with the Minotaur, and his leading the dance of youths and maidens (in connection
with the Cretan legend), being practically the only two usually represented.
But in the Epictetic group of painters Theseus suddenly blossoms out into a
new character as the specially Attic hero, with a whole series of labours of his
* About the same time the girl, as distinguished from the grown woman, makes her debut: see for
example E 68, E 718, and Hartwig, Joe. cit. p. 321. Here the hair, cut rather short, hangs loose on the
shoulders.
f This transition is well illustrated by a comparison of the Attic pyxis E 775 with the hydria of
apparently S. Italian fabric F 90 : in both cases we have a chariot drawn by two Erotes, in the former
we have the boyish type coloured white, in the latter the immediate predecessor of the androgynous type.
% Diimmler in Bonner Studien, p. 69, suggests that these scenes and the banquet scenes on the Duris
vases may have been insp red by similar subjects on the sepulchral monuments. But it seems hardly
necessary to go outside the range of vase painting for this evolution, especially as we know so little of the
sepulchral monuments of the time in question.
youth, such as bowling the hoop (E 296), whipping tops (Hartwig, Meistersch.
pi. 27), and playing astragali (E 501). It may be noted here that it is only
among the later cup-painters that the youth * as distingushed from the ephebos
begins to figure. Previously to this time, three chief types of the different ages
of man had obtained : the white-haired old man, the bearded man in the prime
of life, and the ephebos. In the cup of Euphronios E 44 we get the old man
bald-headed ; and this, with the two younger types, is well shown on a cup of
Hieron (Frohner, Brantegliem Coll. pi. 21) with a new one added, the bald but
still vigorous man. After this comes yet a fifth type, the boy with long hair not
yet shorn : this type had figured quite early in mythical scenes {e.g. Astyanax
in B 205), but now comes prominently forward with his occupations of daily
life. He is succeeded in popular favour by the mere infant, who is found
specially on the small lekythi and polychrome vases, playing with toys. A
somewhat parallel evolution is shown in the type of Eros on vases, who changes
from that of the full-grown athletic ephebos (E 440) to an infantile figure
painted white like the children just.mentioned, which is the precursor on the one
hand of the Roman Cupid, and on the other (perhaps owing to this white, and
therefore apparently feminine, type) to the androgynous Eros of the later
South Italian vases f (Furtwaengler, Eros in der Vasenmalerei).
In the growing tendency towards a formal style which marks the vases of
Duris and Hieron, we have groups of two or more figures in different attitudes
conversing. Out of these " conversation groups" was gradually evolved a
formal group consisting usually of two athletes draped and confronted, which
did constant duty as the conventional decoration of vases of which the obverse
only was regarded as important.^
Early in the fifth century, the patriotism of the Attic painter finds
expression in the growing importance which he attaches to the legends of
Theseus, the typical Attic hero. This may be seen by reference to the lists
published in Mus. Ital. Ill, p. 210, and Wulff, Theseussage. In the black-figure
style, the repertory of Theseus scenes had been extremely limited: his adventure
with the Minotaur, and his leading the dance of youths and maidens (in connection
with the Cretan legend), being practically the only two usually represented.
But in the Epictetic group of painters Theseus suddenly blossoms out into a
new character as the specially Attic hero, with a whole series of labours of his
* About the same time the girl, as distinguished from the grown woman, makes her debut: see for
example E 68, E 718, and Hartwig, Joe. cit. p. 321. Here the hair, cut rather short, hangs loose on the
shoulders.
f This transition is well illustrated by a comparison of the Attic pyxis E 775 with the hydria of
apparently S. Italian fabric F 90 : in both cases we have a chariot drawn by two Erotes, in the former
we have the boyish type coloured white, in the latter the immediate predecessor of the androgynous type.
% Diimmler in Bonner Studien, p. 69, suggests that these scenes and the banquet scenes on the Duris
vases may have been insp red by similar subjects on the sepulchral monuments. But it seems hardly
necessary to go outside the range of vase painting for this evolution, especially as we know so little of the
sepulchral monuments of the time in question.