Four
Lydos and Others
Most of the vases dealt with in the last two chapters were of no great size. The François vase was large, but the figures were comparatively small. For a more monumental style of drawing we must turn to other artists, such as the Painter of Acropolis 606, or Nearchos, or Lydos. Two of these three belong to the second quarter of the sixth century and are contemporaries, roughly speaking, of Kleitias; the career of the third, Lydos, begins in the second quarter, but lasts well into the third. The Painter of Acropolis 606 takes his name from a large and fairly fully preserved dinos found on the Acropolis of Athens (pls. 30, 5 and 31, 1–2).[1] The shape is known to us from the earlier vase by the Gorgon Painter in the Louvre, as well as from several vases by Sophilos; and the system of decoration is the same, several zones running round the vase and covering the whole surface. The chief picture is a battle-scene; not a contemporary battle, for the fighters have driven up in chariots and by this time the chariot had ceased to be used in Greek warfare, but a battle thought of as taking place in the heroic past. There are eight chariots. The drivers pull the horses up, and most of the warriors have alighted; only one has a foot still in the car. Two pairs of warriors have already met. One pair attacks; others resist, but one of their companions is down on his face. The larger-scale reproduction gives only part of what is preserved; more is shown, on a smaller scale, in the general view. This is at last a picture that for size, grandeur, and vehemence may rank with the masterpieces of the Nettos Painter and his fellows. The eager forward faces; the fierce twirl of the moustaches; the bold lines of the helmets, which would delight an armourer; the wrenched body of the fallen hero; the superb horses, which have shed the old-fashioned rocking-horse look of the seventh century and the early sixth—all these and much else combine to make this one of the best battle-pieces in archaic art. The photograph (pl. 31, 2) reproduces an unpublished portion, the last driver and warrior on the right of the picture, and part of the last warrior on the left, supplementing the able modern copy. It does not give the original colours so well; the hair of the
[1] For numbered notes to chapter iv see pages 98–100.
driver was dark red, and so was the warrior's helmet, except the edge, which was black with white dots. On the other hand the incision is seen to be more sensitive than one could tell from the copy, especially in the drawing of the driver's face. The dark thing to right of the driver is his shield, then comes the double crest of the warrior. Above the chief zone there is a band of floral pattern, and below it another floral band, thick, and even more formal; below that, a narrower picture-zone with a cavalry-engagement, only part of which has been published. The riders are small, their horses big and powerful. One party consists of Greeks, wearing short chitons and brimmed felt hats, and hurling javelins by means of a thong; their opponents are mounted archers, wearing short chitons, boots, and flapped hats of Oriental fashion; quivers at their backs. One javelin-man is down, with an arrow in the brain, and his horse rushes off without him. There is fury in this picture too. Below it a floral band, and then a zone of animals aligned in groups of two and three. These, although one would hardly have expected it, are a little mannered in style. The artist has made an experiment in grouping, and the animals, instead of keeping their distance, overlap freely; this may not seem remarkable, but it is against the time-honoured rule of the animal frieze, according to which animals are either locked in combat or keep their distance. The innovation did not find favour. Another floral band follows, a wreath of myrtle, and the bottom of the dinos has a handsome design, based on the whirligig which had long been a popular form of circular decoration.[2] Six foreparts of animals, alternately lion and horse, are set round a thick red band like handles on a ship's wheel, or like an idealised carrousel. The idea of speed is admirably conveyed, and is enhanced by the whippy plants in the spaces between. Finally, a second animal-frieze adorns the top-side of the mouth: here there are no innovations, and the animals keep their distance.
Another aspect of the painter is illustrated by two amphorae in Berlin (pl. 32, 1–2) and Tübingen (pls. 32, 3–4).[3] In the very large Berlin amphora the foot is modern, and as the Tübingen vase shows, should be restored with more curve. This is one of the amphorae in which the general aspect is especially austere. In the sixth century the decoration of the amphora soon comes to be confined to a large panel reserved on each side, the rest of the vase, except the space for rays at the base, being painted black; but usually there are several figures in the panel, and it has a floral border above. Sometimes, however, there is no floral pattern, and only a single large figure, either a horse's head or a horseman. Other subjects are rare in this austere variety of the amphora; and we can speak of "horse-head amphorae" and "horseman amphorae." The horseman often leads a second horse; and in the Berlin vase two men ride side by side, and tell as a more complex single. The hither man wears helmet and greaves, carries a shield and spear; all that is seen of his companion is the face and the front of the brimmed felt hat. As often, a bird flies beside the riders, this time with a serpent in its beak, doubtless a good omen; as often, an animal runs beside—in one picture a hound, on the other a hare,—an undersong to the main theme. This very large vase—it is over thirty-one inches high—may have stood as a monument on an Attic tomb, as some at least of the horse-head vases certainly
did. Horse-head or horseman will have borne witness to the station or tastes of the dead—either a knight, or one interested in horses.[4] The Tübingen vase is smaller (almost twenty inches high) and has only a single warrior on each side; the eagle has no serpent, but hound and hare are as before.
Fierce fighters like those on the Athens dinos, and by the same hand, appear on a fragment in Odessa which has historical interest (pl. 31, 3);[5] it was found at Theodosia in the Crimea, and is the earliest piece of Attic pottery as yet discovered in South Russia, which imported not a few vases from Attica in the later part of the sixth century and in the fifth, and in the fourth century became one of the chief markets.
The name of this painter has not survived. The name of Nearchos, however, is known from eight signatures.[6] His most important works are fragments of two large kantharoi found on the Acropolis of Athens. The best-preserved of the four pictures decorating them represents the harnessing of Achilles' chariot (pl. 33, 1).[7] It is the earliest Attic example of a subject—harnessing a chariot—which became very popular, as will be seen, in the middle and the second half of the sixth century.[8] The only harnessing-scene before Nearchos' is much earlier, again on a Corinthian work, a Protocorinthian aryballos from the second quarter of the seventh century in Berlin.[9] The pole-horses, and the hither trace-horse, are already harnessed; and Achilles himself, bearded and long-haired, stands in front of them, holding the head of the trace-horse to keep it quiet (pl. 33, 1). The fourth horse is being brought up by an old man who holds it by the forelock. The horses are named; two names, Chaitos and Euthoias, remain, and probably the beginning of a third name, the pi under the bellies; these are not the names of Achilles' horses in the Iliad. The artist has signed, between Achilles and the trace-horse, NearcoVmegrafsenk & x97;[poiesen ], "Nearchos painted and made me." Achilles wears corslet and greaves; a female stands behind him, holding his helmet, spears, sword, and his shield, which is of Boeotian type and charged with a gorgoneion. One would expect this to be the mother of Achilles, Thetis; but if the letter to the right of the sword is the beginning of her name she may be another Nereid, Ch[oro], for example, a sister of Thetis. The photographs show that the drawing was carried out in brown before the final black was applied; there are also many traces of a careful incised sketch not only for the figures but even for the inscriptions. The untidy appearance of the pattern-bands above and below the picture is due to an experiment which, from our point of view at least, has not succeeded: the red-and-black tongue-pattern was painted on a white ground instead of on the surface of the vase itself, and the white has not resisted. It is the earliest Attic example of that white ground which had a certain vogue in later black-figure and became very important in the red-figure period. Another abnormal feature is in the white horses; the white, as is usual by this time, was painted on a black undercoat, but a thick black line is left to mark the white more clearly off from the background. In spite of much minute detail there is a largeness of style and a gravity of tone in the picture that point forward to Exekias in the third quarter of the century.
The other Nearchos kantharos, or one side of it at least, is devoted to the Gigan-
tomachy, the Battle of the Gods and Giants;[10] the subject suddenly becomes popular in the second quarter of the sixth century, and more will be said about it when we come to Lydos. Nearchos as a miniaturist is known from a small round aryballos (oil-flask), in New York (pl. 32, 5–6), which represents the Battle of Pygmies and Cranes.[11] Nearchos' picture is not to be compared with Kleitias', but the group of the pygmy capsized by the crane is not bad, and the pygmy struggling along with the dead bird on his back is the earliest example of a group that was appreciated in the fifth century. The other nooks and corners of the little vase are decorated with a scurrilous group of three satyrs; with a pair of Tritons; and with single figures of Perseus and Hermes. Nearchos here signs as potter only, but the style shows that he painted the pictures as well as fashioned the vase. He also made cups, and was the father of a famous cup-maker who will occupy us later, Tleson.[*]
The name of Lydos is known from two signatures:[12] one on the fragment of an early and undistinguished work, an amphora, in the Louvre,[13] the other on a fragmentary masterpiece of his prime, a dinos, from the Acropolis in Athens.[14] The amphora represents the Death of Priam (pl. 33, 2), and the inscription runs HO LVDO S : ELR SEN "painted by Lydos"; the fourth and fifth letters of the verb (af ) were omitted by mistake (pl. 33, 3). Three interpoints separate it from the name. The dinos has a double signature incised on the side of the mouth; the first half of it is incomplete and all that remains is the end of the verb, . . . S EN . The second half reads HO LVDO S=E [L ]RDf S[EN with the last two letters lost (pl. 34, 1). There are four interpoints, or rather interstrokes, between oLndoVand egrafsen , and there must have been three or four others after the first verb; there is a break here, but a trace of the upper interstroke remains in the break. More than one supplement has been proposed, but far the most natural, on the analogy of other double signatures, is: So-and-so epoiesen ("made it"), Lydos egrapsen ("Lydos painted it"). The maker may have been Lydos himself, or may have been someone else. These rather dull particulars are necessary to justify the use of the name Lydos for the painter of the dinos and of the vases, in the same style, which will occupy us for the rest of this chapter.
The dinos did not fire perfectly; much of what should have been black turned brown, and became lighter in tone than the added dark red; most of the white, too, has faded, this also probably because of defective firing. What with that, and the fragmentariness, the vase is not very easy to study, but as a central piece it is worth an effort. The chief zone is dedicated to the Gigantomachy, the Battle of Gods and Giants. In the zone below there are two subjects, one a procession—animals being led to sacrifice,—the other a hunt on horseback. The third zone has animals. The large fragment (e ) gives, in the uppermost zone, parts of four figures; other pictures of the Gigantomachy, contemporary and later, help one to interpret the remains. First, Zeus is probably standing with his left foot in the chariot-car and his right foot on the ground, holding the reins and goad in his left hand, and the thunderbolt raised
[*] See pp. 50–51.
in his right. Second, Herakles , on the farther side of the chariot, has one foot in the car, and sets the other on the pole of the chariot; in this precarious position he draws his bow. He wears, besides the short chiton, the lionskin which is not given to Herakles in Attic art until the second quarter of the sixth century.[15] Third, Ge , Earth herself, stands to left on the far side of the chariot. Without the other pictures it would have been impossible to interpret the little of this figure that remains; in those she is seen bending forward, taking Zeus by the beard and forehead, beseeching him to spare the giants her sons. Fourth, again on the far side of the chariot, Athena strides to right, attacking with her spear. The three, Zeus, Athena, and the mortal Herakles without whose aid the giants could not be defeated, form the kernel of Attic Gigantomachies.
The leg on the right of fragment o may belong to Zeus, wearing short chiton and cloak. On the left, a goddess (her peplos leaving her shank bare) overtakes a fleeing giant, sets her foot on him, and drives her sword down through his corslet into his breast. He turns, falls, but the fingers still grasp the shield-grip; the right arm was extended. On the extreme left of the fragment is the greaved shank of another combatant rushing to left. Fragment t has parts of Apollo and Artemis ; Artemis, who draws her bow, looks at first glance like a Herakles, for she wears a lion's skin over her peplos. Apollo's arm is raised (not as in the modern copy), probably using spear of sword. The female feet on fragment u may be Artemis', and the shod foot Apollo's; at their feet as they run is a fallen giant . Fragment q shows Hermes in conflict; a giant attacks him with his spear (pl. 34, 1). The device on the giant's shield is a splendid satyr-head in high relief, with upturned nose, open mouth, white teeth, and hair swept back from the brow. Hermes , armed with helmet and shield (device a gorgoneion), thrusts his spear into the throat of a second giant , who falls, but tries to draw his sword. The giant wears thigh-armour as well as greaves. Aphrodite is seldom seen to take part in the Gigantomachy (although she fights in the Iliad, if without success), but on fragment r , crowned with myrtle, she wields spear and shield against the giant Mimos[*] (perhaps written by error for Mimas), whose device is a large bee (pl. 34, 2). In the next fragment Dionysos , ivy-crowned, attacks to left, with shield and spear, assisted by a lion, and perhaps, as on many vases, by other animals as well. Fragment h has the greaved leg of a warrior running to left, and part of the giant Athos fallen prone, his left leg drawn up so that the shin rests on the ground. Fragment a has the upper part of a warrior attacking to left. Fragment b has part of the giant Perichthonios , and some uncertain vestiges (long hair, chiton, and goad?). In fragment s the giant Aristaios attacks Hephaistos . Above, a piece of the floral border. In fragment c the giant [Hopl ]adamas is down on one knee. Fragment i gives the hand of Poseidon holding the island of Nisyros which he broke off from the island of Cos and hurled upon the giant who opposed him. On the right is a hill—perhaps figuring the island of Cos—which continues on fragment k , with plants and a startled hare and fox; then comes the chariot of one of the gods (pl. 34, 3).
In the second zone, three animals are led to sacrifice: a cow, a sow, and a ram or
sheep. It is a trittys or trittoa , an offering of three different animals, corresponding to the Roman suovetaurilia . The men conducting them carry branches—always in place at religious ceremonies—and one of them is shown to be the slaughterer by the set of knives he carries in a case slung round his neck; the short garment of white linen which he wears round his waist has an incised pattern on it looking like diaper. The second scene on this zone is a hunt on horseback, with hounds and hare. Lion, panther, boar, sphinx, and siren are among the sturdy animals in the third zone.
The dinos of Lydos must be nearly contemporary with the kantharoi of Nearchos, shortly before the middle of the sixth century. The drawing is not less elaborate than in Nearchos, but a little broader.
Somewhat earlier than the dinos in Athens and of everyday quality is the column-krater by Lydos at Harvard (pl. 35, 1–2).[16] The shape, as was said above, occurs in Attica as early as the period of the Nettos Painter,[17] but was probably Corinthian in origin. The main design on the obverse of the Harvard vase, the chariot seen from the front, may have been Corinthian to begin with, but reached Attica early in the sixth century and is already found on a vase by the Gorgon Painter.[18] There is only one person in the car, the driver, in long robe and brimmed hat. Flying birds fill the spandrils between the horses' heads, and on each side of the chariot there is a group of warriors fighting, one attacking and one turning tail; in the right-hand group the attacker leaps upon his opponent, who is borne down on one knee. The device on the shield is the forepart of a threatening snake in the round. We have already seen a picture, on the dinos by the Gorgon Painter in the Louvre, in which two warriors fight in the middle, while to left and right their drivers, who have brought them to the field, hold the chariots in readiness to take them back or transfer them to other ground.[*] Here the painter has inverted the accent; the chariot is in the middle and has become the chief part of the design, while the combatants are relegated to the sides. The back of the vase is decorated with a symmetrical group of three animals, a sphinx between two lions with reverted heads. The holes in the middle of the obverse mark the place of rivets; the vase, like many others, is seen to have been mended in antiquity.
A second column-krater by Lydos was recently acquired by the British Museum (pl. 35, 3–4).[19] The picture on the back is the same as in the Harvard vase, a sphinx between two lions. On the front the story of the Judgement of Paris is related in much the same way as on the C Painter's pyxis in the Louvre [**] and several other Attic vases of the period. Hermes leads the three goddesses forward; as usual in earlier pictures, the three look very like one another, and the observer cannot help thinking that Paris will have a difficult task. So thinks Paris also, and bolts in alarm. Paris' reluctance to act is known to us from later writers such as Lucian, but it was probably described in the original epic narrative, in the Cypria .[20] One touch in the picture will not have come from the epic, but from a painter, whether Lydos or a predeces-
[*] See p. 16 and pl. 14, 4–6.
[**] See p. 22 and pl. 20, 2.
sor: Paris' dog feels his master's alarm and shows sympathy. To left of the major group, Lydos has added a minor group of three figures, a woman between two men; they are hard to name, but two of them recur in the Judgement of Paris on an ovoid neck-amphora in Florence (pl. 35, 5).[21] The figure-scenes on the Florence vase, and the animals on the neck, might be by Lydos himself, but the animals below the figure-scenes are not in his style and must be by a collaborator. There is no dog in the Florence picture, but between the legs of Hermes there was room for an owl.
A column-krater in New York (pls. 36 and 37, 1),[22] finer than the other two, is almost on the level of the signed dinos in Athens. The red is well preserved, but most of the white has faded. The picture, which runs right round the vase, represents the Return of Hephaistos. Kleitias, on the François vase, told the story in full, with all the characters, and much contrast of emotion between one character and another (pl. 25, 4). Lydos concentrates on the riotous procession of satyrs and maenads, which formed only one end of Kleitias' picture; and the only real contrast is between the solemn figure of Dionysos, standing or moving slowly, and his excited followers. If Kleitias' picture is like a symphony, Lydos' is like the blast of a trumpet.
Dionysos is near the middle on one side of the vase, holding vine, ivy, and drinking-horn; Hephaistos on his mule has been separated from Dionysos (whom he is usually shown as following) and shifted to the middle of the other side to make a centre-piece. The procession is headed by a satyr playing the flute; then satyrs and maenads dance or scramble along, holding branches of vine and ivy, wineskins, drinking-horns, and one satyr grips a large snake; snake-taming forms part of religious revels in many places. Under the first handle (pl. 37, 1), and near it, the satyrs and maenads turn or look back towards Hephaistos; a satyr lays his hand on a maenad's shoulder, and she grasps him by the tail; under the second handle, a satyr and maenad embracing bring up the rear (pl. 36, 3). Three of the satyrs vary the profile order of the procession by turning their faces towards us. The cloaks of Dionysos and Hephaistos have three-dimensional folds, which appear from time to time in the second quarter of the sixth century, one of the initial steps towards the more complex treatment of drapery in the late archaic period. A careful floral design adorns the mouth of the vase; the top-side of the mouth is alive with animals; and there is a gorgoneion on each handle-plate.
The Dionysos of the New York krater recurs, smaller but with little change, on a vase in the British Museum (pl. 37, 2–3).[23] In shape it is an amphora, but adapted to serve a special purpose. There is a spout, and the wall is double; the wine was poured into the inner receptacle, and cold water into the space between the outer and the inner wall. The water could be changed and the wine thus kept cool; the vase is in fact a "psykter-amphora." The composition on one side is conditioned by the spout, which for some reason is not in the middle. Under the spout, a small satyr bends and plays with a hare, just as the satyrs bend to clear the handles on the krater in New York. The satyrs and nymphs are so like those of the New York vase that one can scarcely help thinking of this as part of another Return of Hephaistos, and is sur-
prised to find that the picture on the other side of the amphora does not give the continuation, with Hephaistos mounted on his donkey or mule, but the subject is the young Theseus putting the Minotaur to the sword. The monster, forced down, grasps the sword-arm of Theseus, and has picked up a stone, but Theseus catches him by the wrist. Four youths look on, two of them naked, two clothed; they are part of the tribute to the Minotaur, the fourteen Athenian youths and maidens whom Theseus now saves.
There are three-dimensional folds in the cloak of one youth, as in the himation of Dionysos. Theseus wears a loin-cloth pulled up between his legs and ornamented with a rosette. His cloak, as often in this scene, lies on a boulder seen between his legs. The slaying of the Minotaur by the Attic hero was a favourite subject with Attic vase-painters from the middle of the sixth century onwards, and occurs already in the second quarter; the earliest representation, however, is not Attic, but probably Corinthian, on a gold band of the seventh century found at Corinth.[24] Before leaving the London vase we notice that the floral decoration above the pictures is in the same style as on the New York krater. The group of Theseus and the Minotaur is repeated, with slight variation, on an amphora by Lydos in Taranto (pl. 37, 4–5),[25] but the design is changed by reducing the onlookers to two and placing a female figure, Ariadne, in the very middle of the picture. It is the same sort of shifted accent as in the Harvard vase. Theseus wears the same unusual garment as before,[26] but the stone between his legs is replaced by an Attic owl. The subject of the other picture is an old favourite, Herakles and the Centaur, doubtless Nessos; the centaur has a stone in his hand, but as on the much earlier Nessos vase in Athens, he founders, stretching out an imploring hand towards the hero's beard. Herakles, as on the signed dinos in Athens, wears the lionskin which was still wanting in earlier Attic pictures. The subordinate figures play the same part in the composition as in the Theseus scene—an onlooker standing on each wing, here a man, and a woman, no doubt Deianeira, standing in the middle. The white portions have faded; only the mattness of the surface shows that the heads, arms, and feet of the female figures were once white. The red also is not perfectly preserved and the left calf of Theseus is damaged, but these are minor matters; the drawing, as nearly always in Lydos, has a certain ease and warmth which are lacking in much black-figure. A third amphora by Lydos, in a private collection at Basle (pl. 38, 1–2), is fragmentary.26 bis The subject on one side is again Theseus and the Minotaur, but the composition is somewhat different: the monster has turned to flee. The onlookers are two youths and two maidens, representing both sections of the tribute to the Minotaur. The maidens hold their mantles out in front of them with both hands: this gesture—which makes them into what may be called "penguin-women"—is extremely popular in the first half of the sixth century, but does not survive the middle, and must mirror a passing fashion in life. On the other side of the vase a horseman sets out, leading a second horse; a woman ("penguin"), a small girl, and two youths look on. The head of the left-hand youth with its tilted chin has an engaging candour. The vase is perhaps a little earlier than
those in London and Taranto. On an amphora in the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris, Herakles tackles the Nemean lion.[27] Like Theseus, he has laid his cloak on a rock, which serves to fill the space between the lion's hind-legs. The man and the two youths looking on have no justification in the legend; they are spectators and no more. The last amphora we shall look at is a very large vase in Naples (pl. 38, 3).[28] For subject the artist reverts to the old group of two mounted men side by side, and even the bird is there, but he has added a floral band above the picture, and he has inverted the stress: the nearer rider, seen at full length, is the young squire, while the master, bearded, and fully armed with corslet, helmet, and shield, is the off figure, visible only in part. The group is repeated, with slight variations, on the other side of the vase. There are more amphorae by Lydos, but these will suffice; by this time the one-piece amphora is becoming the leading black-figure shape, and most of the vases we shall be considering henceforth will belong to a few classes: amphorae, neck-amphorae, hydriai, and cups.
A hydria by Lydos is recomposed, on paper, from fragments in Göttingen and in the Cabinet des Médailles (pl. 38, 4 and 6).[29] The chief picture, on the body, is a chariot-scene, one of many on hydriai. The occupants of the car are missing, but the lower part of a draped man remains, standing behind the chariot or rather beside it, and no doubt addressing them. His himation has a three-dimensional fold. The horses are just like those on the amphora in Basle. The secondary picture (pl. 38, 4), on the shoulder of the vase, represents a foot-race—four young sprinters (of the fourth the left arm is all that is preserved), and spectators (or rather, perhaps, the judges)—two men and a youth. The small scene has much charm. The athletes are contrasted with the heavily clothed observers in face as well as in body; and while all four seem to be fast, the leader does look a little faster than the rest. This type of runner, striding hugely, with the toes of the back foot touching the ground, with the forward leg extended and raised right up from the ground, with the arms spreadeagled, with left arm and left leg moving together, and right arm and right leg—that is one of the most characteristic figures in archaic vase-painting, but it cannot be said to appear until the second quarter of the sixth century. That right arm and right leg should move forward together is not in nature; but in this type of figure the notion of speed is admirably expressed.[*]
The long line of Panathenaic prize-amphorae begins in the time of Lydos, and a small fragment of a Panathenaic amphora by him is preserved in the University of Chicago;[30] it comes from the back of the vase, and has parts of two sprinters in the same style as those on the hydria, but less careful. Speed is well rendered in the flying figures on a plate by Lydos from the Robinson collection in the Fogg Museum (pl. 38, 5).[31] The round space is decorated in a manner already familiar from the cups of the C Painter and others with a pair of winged figures side by side, whose outstretched limbs form a whirligig design. Both are youthful, and they are accom-
[*] On the motive see p. 83.
panied by a hare and a serpent. It is not certain who they are; most likely the winged sons of Boreas, Zetes and Kalais. A similar pair on a fine cup-fragment, of the same period but by another painter, from the Acropolis of Athens, have the beginning of an inscription beside them, the letters Ke . . ., but this is difficult to complete, and the name may be that of the artist rather than of the persons represented.[32]
Lydos painted cups as well as pots. His cups of Siana type are slight and not very interesting. More important is a fragmentary cup found in the cemetery of the Ceramicus at Athens and now in the Ceramicus Museum (pl. 39, 1).[33] It is not of Siana type, but is either a merrythought cup[*]—the greater part of the handles is missing—or of some similar form. The subject shows it to have been made for funeral use: on one half we see the prothesis, a dead man lying on the bier, with women beating their heads, and male mourners as well, a man and a little boy; on the other half the valediction, youths and men—one of them very old—in two groups, making the gesture of farewell, and chanting the lament. The theme is ancient, goes back to the Geometric period, but it is nowhere else found on a drinking-cup; it is treated in a somewhat unusual manner; and there is passion and reality in the figures.
Lydos has left other work besides vases. The Vlasto collection at Athens contains fragments of rectangular clay plaques, parts of a set that decorated a sepulchral monument at a place called Spata in Attica.[34] Portions of several such sets have reached us: of an early set, for example, by Sophilos; of a later, by Exekias. The Vlasto plaques are nearly fourteen inches high, the figures very large—a foot high—and very careful. The best-preserved fragment (pl. 39, 2) gives the left-hand part of a valediction scene, men raising their arms and chanting as on the cup from the Ceramicus. This is Lydos at his best. The other fragments show a youth in the same attitude, a woman tearing her hair, a man grasping his head in distress. The context will be clearer when we come to the sepulchral plaques by Exekias, which are more fully preserved.[**]
The plaques and all these vases by Lydos belong to his middle or later period, the years round about the middle of the sixth century, but there are a good many vases from an earlier stage in his career. One of them is a hydria in the Villa Giulia at Rome, which has the earliest Attic picture of the conflict between Herakles and the three-bodied Geryon (pl. 40, 1).[35] The subject was a great favourite with Attic vase-painters in the second half of the century; the earliest representation of all is Corinthian of the seventh. In shape, the Villa Giulia vase is plain and squat, the lines less tense than in layer hydriai. The figures are extremely short and sturdy. Herakles, wearing the lionskin, draws his bow. Geryon consists of three complete warriors thought of as joined at the waist. One of them, pierced through the eye with an arrow, stumbles, and the head falls back; the other two press on with spears levelled. The devices on the shields, incised, are a tripod and the forepart of a lion. Eurytion, the herdsman of Geryon, with his goatskin cap, lies dying on the ground. On the
[*] See p. 21 and pl. 19, 2.
[**] See pp. 65–66 and pl. 74,2.
shoulder, a siren between two lions. The reproductions hardly do justice to the grandeur of this rugged work, and the original itself has suffered; the surface of the vase has become dull, the contrast between light and dark is obscured, and the incised lines do not show up as brightly as they should. This is not only the earliest, but the best Geryonomachy in Attic black-figure, and the only one that will compare with the Chalcidian in the Cabinet des Médailles, or the red-figured by Euphronios on his famous cup in Munich.
A still earlier phase of Lydos appears on two hydriai, one of which is in Munich (pl. 40, 2–3), the other in the Louvre (pl. 41, 1–2). The shape is the same as in the Villa Giulia vase. On the Munich hydria, two men, fully dressed, lead horses, and a short "penguin-woman" stands between them.[36] The men are naturally not grooms, but owners. Three massive animals adorn the shoulder, a swan between two panthers. The Louvre hydria, which is not quite so early, is also concerned with horses;[37] once more a youth rides one horse and leads another, while three men and two "penguinwomen" watch his departure. Between the horse's legs a goose is seen preening itself. On the shoulder, a fawn between two panthers; on both hydriai the old-fashioned filling-ornaments are retained in the animal-pictures on the shoulder, just as they were in the animal-zones on the François vase.
Besides the vases that can be assigned to Lydos himself, many others are so closely related to him that they must have been made in the same workshop. It is important, in justice to Lydos, to distinguish these from the work of his hand. Several minor artists, assistants of Lydos, can be traced; we cast a glance at one of them only, the Painter of Louvre F 6. The distance between him and Lydos can be measured by comparing the column-krater in Harvard (pl. 35, 1–2), which is by Lydos, with a column-krater in Oxford (pl. 41, 3–4) and a hydria in Rhodes which are by the Painter of Louvre F 6.[38] It would plainly be unfair to Lydos that he should be burdened with such inferior pieces. The difference is not between the same man when he is himself and when he is not quite himself, but between the artist and the mechanical imitator.