2oo LOCAL IMITATIONS AND

an indication of the period at which it was current; it is not found on the
Nessos vase, or, if we look for a lower limit, on the Francois vase, or the
Acropolis dinos, Graf 606. In the one case we have something more definitely
Protocorinthian in construction, in the other we can see that the stage repre-
sented by the vases of the Gorgon dinos group is already passed. The closest
analogy of all is given by the Sophilos dinos where the drawing of the orna-
ment differs only in being a trifle more accomplished. In every other respect
the resemblance is extraordinary; it extends even to the curious over-
crowding of the petals of the palmettes. Unfortunately we have no animals by
Sophilos,1 so that it is impossible to say whether the Boston kotyle is by his
hand.

When one reviews the Comast group as a whole it is easy to see that
the vases extend over a certain period of time. The cups of groups I and
II and the kotylai nos. 22, 3, 7, are early and must stand near the begin-
ning of the series. The cups of group III are much nearer to the canonical
Attic black-figured style; one need only compare the dancers seen in
pi. 51, 2 with those of the Louvre cup C.A. 576,2 a detail of which is
given in fig. 89, or of the Berlin Ergotimos cup (W.V. 1888 pi. 4, 2 a-d;
Hoppin, B.F.V. pp. 82-3) to realize this. Moreover, on these later vases
the Corinthian padding is given up, and we have the ordinary nude komos,
so frequent in Attic painting from the second quarter of the sixth century
onwards.3 If the later vases are roughly contemporary with the work of
Klitias and belong to the years round 570 B.C. the others will belong to the
Sophilos period, to the years 580-70; some (nos. 30-4, 38-41) must be
rather earlier still. This result, reached by comparison with other Attic
works, is entirely in harmony with the evidence of the history of the Corin-
thian style. The cup and the kotyle both appear in the Comast fabric
exactly in their Corinthian form, and obviously under Corinthian influence,
for neither is found in Attica before, and the favourite subject, padded
dancers, is an almost exclusively Corinthian motive. We know from inde-
pendent evidence that the corresponding Corinthian cups belong to the years
between c. 600-575 B.C. (see p. 310).

1 The fragments with centauromachy and animals
illustrated in Jahrbuch 1898, pi. 1 (Hoppin,
B.F.V. 334-5) certainly do not belong to the same
vase as the signed fragment; clay and varnish are
like, but the dividing line below the frieze of the
signed fragment is much thicker than on the other
fragments, and four friezes of such breadth could not
have found room on one vase. Further the frieze
with the signature was narrower than those with
animals which must have stood below it; this is
obviously impossible.

2 Shape as Hoppin, B.F.V. p. 149.

3 I mean, of course, that padding is given up so
far as the men are concerned; padded women, or
women wearing short chitons, become very frequent
on the later vases. These women, and they are a
very distinctive type, recur on various rather early
black-figure cups which are obviously Attic, and
they therefore confirm the attribution of the Comast
series to Athens (cf., for instance, C.V.A. Copen-
hagen III H e pi. 113,3; 118,2; Brit. Mus. pi. 10,4;
the Ergotimos cup quoted above, and Jacobsthal,
Gottinger Vasen pi. 4, 13.)