Two Vases by Phintias

It was my intention to publish in the Journal of Hellenic Studies a cylix by Phintias in the Central Museum at Athens, together with the substance of a paper read at a meeting of the British Archaeological School in March of this year. Learning, however, that Dr. P. Hartwig was anxious to publish the cylix in his forthcoming Meisterschalen, I entered into correspondence with him, and by his kindness am enabled to publish in its place the well-known hydria in the British Museum (Klein, Meistersignaturen 3) and fragments of a stamnos in the possession of Dr. Friedrich Hauser, now at Stuttgart, whose kindness in furnishing me with drawings by his own hand I would gratefully acknowledge.A.—The first vase to be discussed is the hydria in the British Museum (E 264) found at Vulci. The form is the older one with sharp divisions between neck, shoulder, and body, which is characteristic of b.f. hydriae, and disappears after the ‘severe’ period of r.f. vase-painting, shoulder and body passing into one and leaving only one field for decoration. On the inside of the lip, in front of the junction with the handle, are three round knobs suggesting pegs or nails. These are in this case painted purple, whereas usually when they appear they are varnished—cp. Petersburg 1, 337 and Berlin 1897 = Gerhard, A. V. 249, 250. The handles are left unvarnished, which is also comparatively uncommon. The main field of the vase is occupied by a scene, which if not of surpassing originality or interest, is at least unusual. Three naked ἔφηβοι, are represented in the act of carrying water from a fountain in hydriae which are of the same form as the vase itself, except that that which is carried by the second youth from the right on his shoulder is apparently of a more developed form, in which the sharp division between shoulder and body is given up. On the extreme right a stream of water issues from a lion's head of admirable execution, worthy to stand beside analogous portions of the work of Sosias and Peithinous, and a youth fills his hydria.