Phoenix Ancient Art S.A.

Preliminary sketch lines are visible on all of the figures. Dilute glaze is used to depict the cheek whiskers of the short-haired youth on side A and side B; for the edges of the himatia of the standing youth and long haired boy on side A; for a small part of the himation worn by the seated youth on side B. Dilute glaze is also used for the swastika design of the yoyo and for the ribbon around the phormiskos on side A, and for the inscription on side B. Reserved lines mark the lower edge of the cup’s offset lip and form a ground-line for the figure scenes. The edge of the foot, a band on the interior of the foot, and the interior of the handles are reserved in the reddish color of the clay.

The Splanchnopt Painter is named after the scene he painted on a fragment of a cup in Heidelberg that depicts a youth or sacrificial attendant, the splanchnopt, roasting the entrails, splangnon, of a sacrificial animal. He is the nearest follower of the Penthesilea Painter, the leading artist of a large Early Classical atelier devoted primarily to the production of painted wine cups (see the kylix attributed to the Penthesilea Painter, no. 16). The heads of his figures generally resemble those of the Penthesilea Painter but have heavy chins and half open mouths, which gives their expression and air of calm serenity. Other hallmarks of the Splanchnopt Painter’s figure work are small, almost minuscule ears traversed by a vertical line; hooked lines to indicate the ankle bone and straight lines to mark the tibia of the leg. Drapery weights give an angle to the ends of his figures’ himatia, whose folds are indicated by sharply angled lines resembling fish hooks.

Mythological subjects are rare in the Splanchnopt Painter’s repertoire. Instead, he confined his figural representations mostly to draped Athenian youths and boys. He decorated a large number of vessels, most of them kylikes: shallow, footed wine cups with two handles. J. D. Beazley attributed to the artist about one hundred fifty cups of this shape, a few skyphoi, several white-ground pyxides, and an unusual askos in the shape of a lobster claw. Low, thick-walled stemless cups, like this charming example, are an exception and are relatively rare in the work of the Splanchnopt Painter. Three stemless cups by him are listed by Beazley, this one being a fourth. His stemless cup in Hamburg, depicting a youth and a seated boy on one side and two youths on the other, provides the closest parallel to the form and decoration of this cup.

The scene on one side of the cup, side A, is unusual and shows, at the right, a long-haired young boy wearing a white fillet. His head, in profile, turns to the left while his body faces outward toward the viewer. From the hand of his outstretched right arm hangs a string, indicated in added white, to which is attached a disc decorated with a swastika: a yoyo. Depictions of youths playing with yoyos are quite rare. Large yoyos made of terracotta, richly decorated like painted vases, have been discovered in the archeological record. Both their size and the material from which they were made may indicate they were votive objects. Yoyos for actual use would have been smaller and made of a less fragile material, like wood or metal. At the left, a youth casually leans forward on a knobby staff, his right arm cocked and his hand resting on his hip. The youth holds his forehead with his left hand as he apparently contemplates his comrade playing with the yoyo. A phormiskos, a container for gaming pieces, hangs suspended between them. At the far right is a mostly indecipherable inscription, probably meant to indicate HO ΠAIS KALOΣ -- “the boy is beautiful.”

On the other side of the cup, side B, a young man, draped in a himation, is seated on a stool, diphros, with his extended right hand resting on a knotted walking stick. His left hand is muffled beneath the cloth of the himation. In front of him stands a young boy completely wrapped in a himation, which is gathered up to cover the back of his neck. Between them, a writing tablet is suspended horizontally and is tied with a cord in which a writing stylus is wedged. A small sack or phormiskos is suspended from the tablet. Below, at the feet of the figures, is a small rectangular object, possibly a seat or a small storage chest. It bears an inscription in dilute glaze that is difficult to read and may be a kalos inscription like the inscription on the other side of the cup. The area below each handle is decorated with a symmetrical, stylized floral composition consisting of an upright palmette flanked by volutes, tendrils, and -- on the the right and left side of each handle -- palmettes encircled by tendrils.

Published:

Chamay, J. in Dörig, J. Art antique: Collections privées de Suisse romande. Mainz 1975, no. 222.

Bibliography:

Aurigemma, S. La necropoli di Spina in Valle Trebba 1. Rome 1960, 154 n. 5, pl. 178b.

Deubner, L. "Spiele und Speilzeug der Griechen." Die Antike 6 (1930), p. 162.