34. 01.8075 KYLIX Palaestric scenes PLATE XIII and FIGURES 25 and 26
Height, 0.101 m.; diameter, 0.231 m. Broken, but almost complete. A small bit missing at the rim of A. The surface of side B badly worn; some of the relief lines appear only as depressions. The glaze has turned in the firing to various shades of brown, and has a crackled appearance. Relief contours throughout except for the hair. Red used for wreaths and fillets, for the cords by which the aryballos and strigil are suspended, for the throwing-straps of the javelins, and for the inscription. Brown used for the whiskers of the youth in the interior and the jumper on side A; also for anatomical markings which are all but indistinguishable. The drawings of the exterior are given merely to show the actions; they fail to reproduce the individual character of the faces. Bought originally in Rome. Acquired by the Museum in 1901. Interior: An athlete folding his mantle.1 Behind him, on the ground, a pick; hanging from a peg on the wall, an aryballos and a strigil. The mantle is dotted and has a striped border. In the field at right, ΚΛΟΣΠ. Exterior, A. Three athletes exercising under the direction of a trainer. First, a youth with right hand raised and left holding a javelin, in animated conversation with a second youth, who is moving to right with body thrown back and shoulders in front view, looking back at the javelin which he poises in his right hand, with two fingers inserted in the throwing-strap, while he steadies the tip with his left hand. Then a jumper, to right, swinging a pair of leaden halteres to the front. Facing him the bearded trainer, wrapped in an himation, holding a forked stick in his right hand. Between these two, a discus decorated with a swastika hanging in a bag on the wall, and two javelins placed obliquely. Single javelins in the field between the first and second and the second and third youths. All four javelins have ἀγκύλαι tied to them. Under the handle, behind the trainer, a discus, also decorated with a swastika. B. Two athletes engaged in a contest under the eyes of a youthful trainer. The one at the left is apparently falling backward as a result of a blow delivered by his opponent. He holds up his left arm to guard his head. Both fists are clenched. His adversary advances to deliver a second blow with his left fist, which is swung out to the rear, while his right arm guards his head. The attitudes do not suggest a wrestling bout. Nor can the contest be a boxing-match, since the fingers of the youths are not bound with thongs (μείλιχαι). It is probably the pankration, one feature of which was hitting with the bare hands. The trainer, wearing himation and soft shoes (περσικαί), stands at the left, leaning on a knotted stick, and holding a forked wand in his right hand. At the right, a goal-post, and a pair of javelins, crossed. For the subject and attitudes Beazley compares the cup by the painter of the Paris Gigantomachy in Brussels, Att. V., p. 190, no. 10; Corpus, Cinquantenaire, III. 1 c, Pl. 3, 2, which has almost exactly the same composition, but facing the other way. About 480-470 B.C. By a painter, not without merit, who may be classed as a follower of the Brygos painter, and is related to the Briseis painter. The jumper on A and the trainer on B repeat two figures on the skyphos, no. 18, Pl. VII (Boston 10.176). Beazley compares two works of the Briseis painter, the cup with athletes in Hamburg, Ballheimer, Vasen in Hamburg, no. 8, pp. 30 f., 4 figs., and a cup at Bowdoin College.2L. D. Caskey, AJA 19 (1915), pp. 131-132; P. Jacobsthal, 93 BWPr, p. 8; ARV, p. 272 (related to the Dokimasia Painter); Olympia in der Antike, Ausstellung, Essen, 18. Juni-28. August 1960, fig. 42; ARV2, pp. 414 (near the Dokimasia Painter), 1652 ("no doubt by the painter himself, not at his best"). Exhibited: The Brockton Art Center-Fuller Memorial, Sept. 4, 1975-July 1977 (S. K. Morgan, The Ancient Mediterranean, p. 26, no. 20).