- Museum number
- 1843,1103.10
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured cup.
INTERIOR: boy on horseback. A naked boy rides a stallion to the left. The boy grasps the reins in both hands, although only his left hand is visible, a red loop falling down over his thigh. He has a red fillet in his hair and strands of hair fall down the back of his neck. The horse has an S-shaped cheek-piece and the reins are attached to a hook or the like hidden behind. There is an oval brand mark (dilute glaze strokes) on the horse's rear thigh. In the background behind the horse is a tree with red leaves. A reserved ground line provides a large black exergue.
Border: false maeander units (rectangular shape, eight-stroke; clockwise between 11 o'clock and 7 o'clock, paired alternately clockwise and anticlockwise between 8 o'clock and 11 o'clock) interrupted by six dotted cross-squares and one dotted saltire-square; odd man at 3 o'clock.
EXTERIOR: arming and a fight.
Side A (lower): arming of two warriors. On the extreme left is a balding man with a short beard, done with thinned glaze and dots to render thinning or greying. He wears a long chiton (fringed selvage; dilute glaze dots above; folds over arms in dilute glaze) and himation and stands to the right in three-quarter back view. His right hand rests on top of a plain stick. He has three dilute glaze creases on his brow. Next to him, a woman in chiton (upper folds in dilute glaze), himation and sakkos, also seen in three-quarter back view, holds out a plain phiale in her right hand, towards a bearded man, in the centre, whose torso and left leg are frontal, while his head is turned to the right. He is in the process of putting on a cuirass over his short belted chiton, his right hand holding one shoulder-flap over his shoulder, his left gripping the side of the cuirass itself. He wears greaves decorated with gorgoneia on the knee-caps. On his right stands a youth, torso frontal, head to the right, feet, in shoes, to the left. He wears a himation with a black border and holds the warrior's spear, the tip of which is not shown. On the right another youth in a himation to the left stoops slightly, his right hand pointing downwards, his left holding the spear of the figure on the extreme right, a naked youth, who bends to the left to snap on his second greave.
Side Β (upper): fight. On the far left, on the ground, is a fallen young warrior with a long reserved headband, short chiton and cuirass. His torso and left leg are frontal, his right leg turned back and up behind the left and his head turned up to the right. He supports himself very awkwardly on his right hand and holds up his shield, seen in profile, on his left arm in vain defence. In the background behind him a youth, naked but for a soft skin hat with one flap tucked up at the back and a cloak over his left arm, escapes to the left. He is seen in three-quarter back view and holds a sword back in his right hand and its striped scabbard out in his left. The assailant of the fallen warrior is equipped with a Thracian helmet, cuirass, short chiton and greaves. He has a shield over his left arm, seen in profile, and a sword back in his right. In the centre, seen in three-quarter back view, a young warrior equipped with only an Attic helmet with raised cheek guards, a shield and a sword moves to the left. He wears a plain short chiton. On the right another young warrior moves to the left, but looks back to the right. He is seen in three-quarter back view and wears a raised Corinthian helmet, a cuirass with pteryges and a short chiton. He holds a sword in his right hand. On the far right a bearded warrior moves away fast to the right, but turns his head back to the left. He has an Attic helmet with raised cheek guards, a short chiton and a shield, seen in profile, but no sword. His right leg is seen in three-quarter front view.
At either handle: floral complex with a circumscribed palmette either side of the handles and a pair of addorsed palmettes under the handles; spiral terminals and dots.
Ground line: single reserved line.
Relief contours throughout (inner hair contour only, and not all figures); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; reserved band inside and outside lip.
- Production date
- 480BC-470BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 33 centimetres
-
Height: 13.30 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- CVA British Museum 9
Bibliography: Mus. Étrusque no. 644; Murray DGV no. 59; AV 208, 121; ARV 296, 23; Bloesch FAS 100 no. 33; ARV2 449, 7.
Attributed by Murray to Onesimos; Smith was more cautious, calling it 'a somewhat lifeless imitation of a good original, possibly by Onesimos' (BM Cat Vases iii p. 82). Beazley placed it in the manner of Douris, but it has now been attributed by J.R. Guy to the Akestorides Painter, whom he sees as a pupil of the Oedipus Painter (Guy Followers of Douris 65-6), as a very early work. The drawing is certainly incompetent, but it seems to lack all the charm of the Akestorides Painter and does not compare well with the other cup that Guy gives to the painter as a very early work (Basel BS 401: ARV2 1653 add as 10 bis; CVA Basel 2, pls. 21-2). The scheme of the handle palmettes is particularly stiff. It is best at present, therefore, to reserve judgement, keeping it in the manner of late Douris. Douris himself painted very few horses (Centre Island, private, fragments [attributed by D. von Bothmer]; cf. also ARV2 448, 1).
Bloesch attributed the potting to Python. He thought that the foot, although by Python, was alien and wondered if it might belong to Vase E48. The foot, in fact, belongs.
Smith (BM Cat Vases 82-3) suggested that the scene on the tondo might be an excerpt from the death of Troilos and that the fight on side Β was between Greeks and Amazons. There is, however, rather more of the racehorse about the steed on the tondo and the idea of the naked warrior with a skin hat being an Amazon seems unlikely. Birch and Newton (BM Old Cat Vases no. 840, p. 294-5) identified the figures on side A as Hektor and Paris arming, with Priam and Hekabe on the left, and those on side Β as coming from a Trojan War battle scene. On arming scenes in general see F. Lissarrague in Cité des Images 41-4 and his L'autreguerrier (Paris and Rome 1990) 35-53.
The drawing of the bit and cheek-piece is very detailed. There is an S-shaped cheek-piece with the ends turned up and down. An actual example of this type and of the early fifth century is known from Olympia: see J.K. Anderson, Ancient Greek Horsemanship (Berkeley 1961) p. 74-5 with pl. 33b, lower left - i.e. 'd') and now P.B. Faklaris, ADelt 41 (1986) 1-58, esp. 44-9. On greaves with gorgoneia on the knees see most recently D. Williams, AA 1989, 543-4.
- Location
- On display (G20a/dc2)
- Condition
- Made up from fragments; one wall and one rim fragment missing (foot belongs, pace Bloesch).
- Acquisition date
- 1843
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1843,1103.10