82. 13.188 NOLAN AMPHORA from Suessula PLATE XLIV, above
Formerly in the Spinelli collection near Cancello. Height 0.3425. RM. 2 pp. 241-2; JHS. 33 pl. 11 and p. 110, whence (A) Curtius Astragalos pl. 2, 3; part of A, Richter A.R.F.V. fig. 53; A, Fairbanks and Chase p. 70 fig. 75; the shape, Hambidge p. 60 and Caskey G. p. 67. A, Hephaistos and Thetis. B, Nike. About 480 B.C., by the Dutuit Painter (JHS. 33 p. 109 no. 12; VA. p. 69; Att. V. p. 128 no. 11; ARV. p. 205 no. 2). On A, unmeaning inscriptions, ΚΟΛΟΚΝ (the third letter amorphous) and ΟΚΟΝΟ. Compare one of the inscriptions on the painter's Nolan amphora in Berlin (Berlin 2330: Furtwängler Beschr. p. 628). The Armour of Achilles had long been a favourite theme with Attic vase-painters, but it is not until the late archaic period that we are taken into the workshop of Hephaistos. Four of the five vases with the subject belong to the decade 490-480 (Bulas Les illustrations antiques de l'Iliade p. 12; Johansen Iliaden pp. 95-7 and 156; ARV. index p. 981); the fifth, a white alabastron in Brussels, Brussels A 2314, is later, about 460 (CV. III Jb pl. 5, 8). The painters usually show Hephaistos seated, in front of his block, with a helmet in one hand and a file or hammer in the other, giving the last touch to the work. In the Boston vase the helmet hangs beside the greaves on the wall, and Hephaistos is polishing the shield with a soft rubber. His himation is tied round his waist, and he wears a workman's cap of wool or fur; he has a short, unfashionable beard and looks just like a workman. Thetis, wearing chiton, himation, spotted saccos, bracelet, stands facing him, eager if not impatient, giving an order or urging haste. The tone is not un-Homeric; in the eighteenth book of the Iliad Hephaistos has a very simple household. Greaves and helmet hang on the wall; and tools — hammer, pincers, and the bow used with the drill (ii p. 21). The helmet is of Corinthian type. The off cheek-piece is visible as well as the hither one. The greaves as often are fastened to a stand or rack. The device on the shield is a gorgoneion, with the tongue showing but not the teeth. The rim is studded with dots surrounded by circles. In the Brussels alabastron, Hephaistos sits holding a helmet. The goddess standing in front of him, holding spear and shield, is not Thetis, but, as the aegis shows, Athena. It is probable, though not certain, that the painter means Hephaistos to be working at the armour of Achilles. That the armourer is Hephaistos and not a mortal is shown by his long hair. In two of the vases mentioned above, Athena is present as well as Thetis. For representations of other helmet-makers see Richter in AJA. 1944 pp. 1-5; add the archaic Greek scaraboid of rock-crystal in Munich (Anz. 1917 p. 35), and another, of agate, in Nicosia. On the reverse of the Boston vase, Nike hastens to right, looking back, with oinochoe and phiale for the drink or the libation. She wears a chiton, with kolpos, a saccos, and bracelets. Between waist and knees a piece of stuff has been sewn to the chiton forming a double thickness. The figure is not connected with the principal scene. Relief-lines contour the greater part of the figures, including the faces. There are brown inner markings on the body of Hephaistos, but the arcs that render his elbows are in relief. The hair of the gorgoneion is in raised black dots on a black ground; the tongue is red on black. The small palmette at each handle is contoured with relief-lines, and the petals are all ribbed. The grave in which the vase was found is described by Helbig (RM. 2 pp. 241-3). It was of the same type (cubo di tufo) as that which yielded the Nolan amphora by the Pan Painter (below, ii p. 53), but the lid was missing. The cinerary urn was a bronze vessel of stamnos-like shape, with bails and a lid, but no handles (RM. 2 p. 241 fig. 14.) The grave contained two Attic vases besides the Nolan by the Dutuit Painter: a small red-figured skyphos of glaux type (B, ibid. p. 243 fig. 16), and a shallow stemless cup, black (ibid. fig. 17). To the list of vases by the Dutuit Painter in ARV. pp. 205-6 and 955 add an oinochoe of shape 5, from Nola, in the Paris market (Mikas: ex Durand 784, Pourtalès 354, Paravey, Piot: woman with mirror and flower): it is of the same model as nos. 12 and 13 in the list.F. Brommer, JdI 52 (1937), p. 209, note 1; C. Hofkes-Brukker, BABesch 15 (1940), p. 13; Van der Heyden 1963, p. 64, fig. 126; P. Reuterswärd, 1960, Studien zur Polychrome der Plastik: Griechenland und Rom, Bonniers, Svenska Bokförlaget, pp. 127-128, note 307; Brommer 1960, p. 271, no. B b4; Palmer 1962, pp. 90-92, fig. 79; Scherer 1963, p. 76, pl. 61; ARV2, p. 306, no. 2; E. Vermeule 1965, fig. 22; E. Vermeule, AJA 70 (1966), p. 5, note 8; Friis-Johansen 1967, pp. 182-184 (fig. 74), 257 (no. B 13d); Philipp 1968, p. 112, no. 43; Para., p. 357, no. 2; Burford 1972, p. 195, fig. 5; Henle 1973, pp. 5, 134-135, fig. 63; Brommer 1973, p. 369, no. B b1; M. Robertson 1975, p. 666, note 228; Ziomecki 1975, pp. 39, 70, 100 (fig. 40), 102, 118, 150 (no. 14); Mattusch 1977, p. 353, note 30; K. R. Crocker, ArchNews 6, no. 3 (Fall, 1977), p. 67; Mattusch 1978, p. 102, note 10; Brommer 1978a, pp. 20-21 (fig. 9), 111, 133, 207 (no. B 3); W. Rostoker and E. R. Gebhard, Hesperia 49 (1980), p. 357, note 22; Mattusch 1980, pp. 435 (note 2), 438; Beazley Addenda 1, p. 105; Parthenon-Kongress, II, p. 411, note 7 (M. Robertson); W. A. Geominy, 1984, Die Florentiner Niobiden, Bonn: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, p. 514, note 999; P. Ducrey, 1985, Guerre et guerriers dans la Grèce antique, Fribourg: Office du Livre S. A., p. 200, illus.; Mattusch 1988, pp. 236, 239, fig. A.31; LIMC, IV, 1, pp. 631 (no. 4), 650, IV, 2, pl. 386 (A. Hermary and A. Jacquemin); Schefold & Jung 1989, pp. 219, 394, note 456; Beazley Addenda 2, p. 212; S. Huber, AntK 34 (1991), p. 151.