Toledo 1963.28 (Vase)

Collection:	Toledo Museum of Art
Summary:	Sides A and B: Athletic figure and trainer. Tondo: centaur.
Ware:	Attic Bilingual
Painter:	Attributed to the Bowdoin-Eye Painter
Date:	ca. 520 BC
Dimensions:	H. 12.2 cm., D. of rim 32.8 cm., W. 41.0 cm., D. of foot 12.0 cm.
Primary Citation:	ARV2, 1630.3 bis, 1621.109 bis; Para, 337
Shape:	Eye cup
Period:	Archaic

Date Description:

Few anatomical markings in the red figures and the use of incision for details difficult to reserve place this vase in the early period of red figure.

Condition:

Details missing from decoration include: in the tondo, most of the stone held by the centaur, part of his tail and his front legs at their juncture with the chest; on Side B, an area extending from the rim above the right eye across the eyebrow to the innermost black band of the iris, and a few chips along a curved break extending from the rim across the left eye and through the figure of the crouching trainer.

Decoration Description:

Reserved: The inside of handles and between the roots, and a narrow band on the inner and outer edges of the rim. The underside of the foot is glazed except for the resting surface and the interior of the stem.

Interior (black-figure): A centaur with long hair and beard rears to the right while he turns to look back to the left. His torso is frontal, while his head is in profile facing left. In his extended right arm he holds a boulder, now mostly lost. The remains of the incised details of the upturned fingers of his right hand are visible to the left of the boulder. Dilute glaze covers the boulder and the centaur's tail.

Encircling the tondo is a plain black band with a reserved red band outside of it. Sides A and B (red-figure): Athletic victor and trainer. On each side a single figure between large eyes which are in turn flanked by palmettes with close-set petals resembling large, open fans. On Side A, a nude youth wearing a wreath of victory stands facing right. He has a sash looped around and hanging from his right arm and holds branches, incised in the black background glaze. On Side B, a youth wearing a himation and wreath bends forward holding a marker in his lowered right hand. Added red: Wreaths and sash, and the pupils of the large eyes. Relief contours appear on the large eyes, on the tendrils of the palmettes and on both figures, except for their hair, which is incised. Relief contours also for the large eyes and the tendrils of the palmettes.

For the profile, cf. CVA, USA 17, Toledo 1, p. 46, fig. 9. The cup has features of both Bloesch's Type A (fillet between bowl and stem) and type B (convex profile of foot); on its hybrid character cf. Münzen, infra, p. 66, no. 124, and AthMitt 86 (1971) 43. See also Beazley's remarks on standard eye-cups, ARV2, 39-40; the palmettes have what he called the "late heart" — black except for a reserved dot in the middle. Prof. Cohen points out that here the "late hearts" are unusual in that they are bounded above by only one relief line, not two, as is the norm. The vase was attributed by Beazley: ARV2, 1630, no. 3 bis and 1621, no. 109 bis

The Bowdoin-Eye Painter, whose name-vase is a red-figure eye-cup in the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Fine Arts (Bowdoin 1913.2: ARV2, 48, no. 160 and 167, no. 5), is one of the notables of the second generation red-figure cup painters of the end of the sixth century. His work is distinguished by careful and precise execution of ornament and balanced compositions, but his treatment of the human figure is summary, lacking the fine details of musculature and drapery seen in many of the works of his more accomplished contemporaries.

His figures, usually athletes, warriors or komasts, always appear individually, whether on cup interiors or on exteriors between "eyes," or "eyes" and palmettes (for the "eyes" see Moon 1979, no. 59 and Cleveland 76.89).

Vases such as this one which are painted partly in the black-figure technique and partly in the red-figure technique have been termed "bilingual" (Beazley 1928a, 25). The interior of this cup is painted in black-figure while the exterior is red-figure. The painter's style in the black and red-figure techniques is distinctive and has been discussed by Beth Cohen, (B. Cohen 1978, pp. 471-489).

Professor Cohen writes us that inscriptions such as the one on this vase rarely appear on the tondi of early eye-cups; the preserved examples are all potter-signatures (e.g. Bonn 390: ARV2, 41, no. 28; Paris, private collection: ARV2, 41, no. 25). It is significant that kalos inscriptions occur only on late bilinguals (e.g. Oxford 515: ARV2, 44, no. 85; Grasmere, Danson: Para., 325; Vatican 499: ARV2, 169, no. 4; B. Cohen 1978, pp. 474-475). She also writes that a centaur is an unusual motive for the black-figure tondo. Only three others on eye-cup interiors are known to me (Villa Giulia: ARV2, 42, no. 43; Naples, Astarita, 492: ARV2, 44, no. 81; Oxford 1954.235: ARV2, 43, no. 66). On occasion, real animals and other hybrids also appear in this location (e.g. Erlangen: ARV2, 42, no. 46; Villa Giulia 761: ARV2, 41, no. 22). The rather mannered pose of the Toledo centaur does not conform to the traditional black-figure convention for rock-wielding beasts — both centaurs and Minotaurs; usually they hold a small stone in each hand and flail their arms in almost a pinwheel motion (e.g. Vatican 499: ARV2, 45, no. 114; Greenwich [Conn], Bareiss, 86, now in the Getty Museum: Para., 325). The profile of the Toledo centaur's face is not delineated with precision; such debased profiles are characteristic of black figures by the Bowdoin-Eye Painter (e.g. Copenhagen, Thorvaldsen Museum, 92: ARV2, 45, no. 108). The Bowdoin-Eye Painter grows progressively less fond of added color. Here no red is applied to the centaur's hair and beard (cf. Centre Island, Bothmer: B. Cohen 1978, pp. 475-476).

The little figures between the eyes are drawn from the realm of athletics — an iconography popular for the red-figure exteriors of bilinguals (e.g. Louvre F 126: ARV2, 43, no. 72; Florence 2 B 4: ARV2, 71, no. 12). On the obverse an athlete displays his prizes: a wreath, a fillet and some branches; this is the moment after his victory. The youth on the reverse bends over while looking up — a common pose for figures on late eye-cups, both bilingual and entirely red-figure (e.g. Bowdoin 1913.2: ARV2, 167, no. 5; Amsterdam inv. 997: ARV2, 168, no. 1; B. Cohen 1978, p. 482). He may well be the trainer of the athlete on the obverse. Perhaps he has just put aside his wand in order to remove a marker from the playing field after the favorable decision. The Bowdoin-Eye Painter's red figures are drawn with few inner anatomical markings, his black figures with many more (cf. Stanford 70.10: ARV2, 45, no. 109; B. Cohen 1978, p. 473). Another feature of the drawing is characteristic of early red-figure — incision has been employed for details difficult to reserve: hair contours and branches.

In conclusion, Cohen states: "The significant position in Attic vase-painting occupied by the bilingual eye-cup was relatively short-lived. The limited format was not sufficiently challenging for skilled vase-painters once red-figure was no longer a novelty. The Bowdoin-Eye Painter was perhaps the last cup-painter of some merit to decorate bilinguals."

The interior of the bowl has an off-center, circular "ghost" of an imprint which is most clearly visible in the black glaze upwards and to the left of the tondo. This imprint is also noticeable in the tondo figure of the centaur and can be followed across the tip of the centaur's tail just inside the plain black band encircling the tondo, across the cannons of the centaur's back legs, continuing across the juncture of the front legs with the chest, and upward along the right side of the torso and across the right shoulder. The diameter of this "ghost" imprint is 12.0 cm, exactly that of the foot of this cup. The width of this imprint is equal to that of the width of the resting surface of the foot of this cup. Evidently, the foot of another cup stood in its bowl duringe Toledo cup may, in fact, have borne the weight of several cups stacked on top of one another in this manner in the same firing, for the distinct lean of the Toledo cup in the direction of the off-center circular imprint in its bowl would indicate some weight pushing downwards on it during firing.

The diameter of the reserved red resting surface of the foot of this cup and that which stood in it during firing are also equal to the diameter of the reserved red circle around the tondo. These specific unglazed parts were carefully calculated to be of the same diameter so that during firing they could be stacked, touching each other in this ingeniously contrived way so that no trace of the stacking process would be visible after the cups were removed from the kiln.

Inscriptions:

In the field behind the centaur is the inscription: [epig-rough]*O *P*A*I*S *K*A*L*O*S, translated as "the boy is beautiful".

Essay:

Moon No. 58

Collection History: Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey.

Sources Used: Moon 1979, no. 58, p. 100-101

Other Bibliography: Touchefeu-Meynier 1963, no. 14; "Note From Paris: Drawing in Greek Art," Apollo 78 (July 1963) 59, no. 4 (incorrectly given to the Bowdoin Painter); Münzen, 65-66, no. 124; O. Wittmann, "Treasures at Toledo, Ohio," Apollo 81 (Jan. 1965) 29; E. Vermeule, "Myths, Shapes and Colours," Apollo 86 (Dec. 1967) 425-427, figs. 10-12; F. Weissengruber, "Zur Wertung des römischen Klassizismus." AntK 10 (1967) 48, pl. 14, 1; R. M. Reifstahl, "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum News 11 (1968) 39; K. Schauenburg, "Herakles bei Pholos zu zwei frührotfigurigen Schalen," AthMitt 86 (1971) 43, n. 7; CVA, USA 17, Toledo 1, pp. 30-31, pls. 47 and 49, 1, fig. 9; B. Cohen 1978, 482 (no. B112) and 483-484