Baltimore, Hopkins AIA B11
Kylix by the Antiphon Painter
490-480 B.C.
B 11. Baltimore Society AIA, formerly Hartwig Collection. "Cervetri."
Ht, 9.3 cm; diam with handles, 30.7 cm; diam rim, 24 cm; diam foot, 8 cm. Mended
from many pieces. Foot is ancient but may not belong. (Top of foot and base of
stem were filed for close fit.)
Interior:
Standing youth in left profile wears fillet and mantle, which expose
only top of head and face. Left arm at hip; right arm raised to chest. In field
before him are a sponge, strigil, aryballos. Inscribed in field on either side
of youth:
[επιγ-ρουγη]Ο ΠΑΙΣ
ΚΑΛΟ[Σ]. (The boy is beautiful.)
Tondo is bordered by leftward meander between reserved bands.
Exterior, Side A:
Pankration scene. Standing at left is youth in right profile wearing
a mantle that exposes only top of head and eyes.
Right hand beneath folds is uplifted to conceal most of face. Fillet
indicated by reserved band between relief lines. Hanging in field in front of
youth are weights and bag. Suspended nearby are strigil, sponge, and bag. In
center are two wrestling youths, the victor crouching with left knee drawn up,
torso frontal, right arm upraised. Left hand is placed over mouth of opponent,
who lies on his back, left hand extended over head, right forearm uplifted, legs
in air. Approaching them is a trainer wearing mantle over left shoulder and
holding staff in outstretched right hand. Head in left profile wearing taenia.
Relief contour throughout, except beneath feet and incised hairlines.
Dilute glaze for inner markings and lettering. Added purple for fillets of youth
on tondo and of two figures with staffs on A and B. Vertical edge of foot
reserved with black line around lower edge.
Exterior, Side B:
Palaestra scene. Standing in right profile is trainer wearing fillet
and mantle draped over left shoulder, exposing right shoulder and arm. Staff in
left hand; right arm with rod in hand is extended to pair of wrestlers, one
of whom is almost
entirely missing except for right foot. Opponent is shown in left profile, with
back in three-quarter view, elbows bent with hands extended.
The Antiphon Painter is credited with almost one hundred cups, most
of which have exterior as well as tondo decoration.
1 The painter prefers genre scenes, either very active ones involving
athletes and hunters, or quiet figures like the youth in our tondo. His
inscriptions are general words of praise (e.g., "the boy is beautiful," as on
our own vase), or refer to specific individuals, such as Antiphon, for whom the
painter is named.
2 Other youths who are complimented include Lysis,
3 Aristarchos,
4 and Nikostratos.
5 The Antiphon Painter worked for several potters, especially Euphronios,
who provided vases for Onesimos and Douris.
6 Our artist also decorated vases for the potter Python, for whom
Epiktetos and Douris also worked.
7
The style of the Antiphon Painter is representative of early
fifth-century vasepainting in the rounded, prominent jaws, the garments, which
fall with few folds, and the three-quarter and back views, which are not always
completely successful. The painter's style is close to that of the early or
proto-Panaetian phase of Onesimos and can be recognized by the even, almost
monotonous spacing of the folds, the drapery pulled tightly over the arms and
grasped by the fists, and the black borders just above the hems of the garments.
On our cup, the scenes in the tondo and on the exterior represent a
palaestra where youths trained in wrestling and in the pankration.
8 Side A illustrates the beginning of the encounter, which continues on
side B, where the trainer gesticulates at the contestants. The sponges, strigil,
and aryballos were used for applying oil before exercising and for removing it
afterward.
Bibliography
P. Hartwig, RömMitt 2 (1887):168, no. VI;
Hartwig 1893, 575ff, pl. 64;
FR, 251-52, no. 1;
Gardiner 1910, 437;
Perrot & Chipiez, vol. 10, 629, fig.
350;
Beazley 1918, 111;
Hoppin 1919, vol. II, 166, no.
1;
Beazley 1925, 232, no.
26;
Philippart 1928, 51;
Gardiner 1930, 214, fig. 189;
CVA, USA fasc. 6, Robinson fasc. 2,
18-19, pls. XVII, XVIII.1;
Buschor 1940, 153, fig. 172;
ARV2, 340, no. 65.
