88. 95.45 LEKYTHOS from Thebes PLATE XLVI, 88
Height 0.391. The shape, Caskey G. p. 219 no. 173. Apollo. About 470-460 B.C., by the Providence Painter (V.A. pp. 76-7 and p. 79 no. 36; Att. V. p. 135 no. 45; ARV. p. 434 no. 56). On the left, downwards, ΗΙΠΠΟΝΚΑΛΟΣ, and above, to left of the face, horizontal, ΚΑ[Λ]ΟΣ, referring to the god. This lekythos, that with Athena (Pl. XLVI, 3), and that with the Wedding of Menelaos (Pl. XLVI, 4) are reported to have been found in a single grave at Thebes. They are of the same shape, are decorated by the same artist, and bear the same kalos-name, Hippon. Apollo stands with right leg frontal, head to left, holding his cithara on his left arm, and extending his right arm with a phiale in the hand. His long hair is wreathed. He wears a long chiton, and over it, on both shoulders, a chlamys-like himation. The thick cloth, ornamented with voided squares, and bordered with esses, appears regularly in pictures of citharodes, and so do the thin cords hanging from the shoulder of the instrument, which I have explained as spare strings (the middle of them is restored). Red is used for the plectrum, which is pushed between strings and sounding-board, and for its cord; also for the ends of the strings at the pegs of the cross-bar; brown for the lines on the arm and on the sleeve, for the short strokes on the phiale, for the stripe on the chiton half-way down the shank, for the patterns on the cithara-cloth and the esses on the band which serves as a support for the left hand. The figure is contoured with relief-lines. Very similar Apollos appear on the large neck-amphora in Providence from which the painter has been given his name (CV. pl. 18: ARV. p. 431 no. 1), on his pelike in the Cabinet des Médailles (Annali 1833 pll. B-C: ARV. p. 433 no. 38) and on his Nolan amphora in Dresden (Dresden 172: ARV. no. 5); but also on vases by other painters, such as a Nolan amphora in Philadelphia (Philadelphia MS5465: Mus. J. 8 p. 26: A, Apollo; B, Artemis). The pattern-work is conventional; the palmettes on the shoulder are of the usual lekythos-type.CVA, München, 5, p. 8 (R. Lullies); ARV2, p. 640, no. 74; B. A. Sparkes, JHS 87 (1967), p. 124; R. Lullies, in E. Berger and R. Lullies, et al., Antike Kunstwerke aus der Sammlung Ludwig, I (1979), Basel, Archäologischer Verlag, p. 112, under no. 40; C. A. Picón, BSA 76 (1981), p. 326, note 27; Maas & Snyder 1989, pp. 68 (as 94.45), 78 (fig. 19), 228 (note 85); Beazley Addenda 2, p. 274. Exhibited: Art Museum of South Texas, March 12 - May 2, 1976 (MFA Vases 1976, p. 23, fig. 28).