137. 03.856 FRAGMENTS OF A CUP SUPPL. PLATE XIX, 2
Outside, Peleus and Thetis. Rather before 490 B.C., by Makron. (ARV.1 p. 302 no. 14; ARV.2 p. 460 no. 16). Seven fragments, making up into three, give a small part of the outside picture. On the largest fragment, (α), Nereus ([Ν]ΕΡΕΥΣ), with a long white beard, sits to right, holding a sceptre in his left hand. A Nereid runs towards him, extending her right arm, and holding a dolphin in her left hand. She wears chiton, himation of 'Ionic' mode, necklace. On the right, thigh and bare knee of another Nereid, also running towards Nereus. Fragment (β) gives the middle of Nereus, seen to be sitting on a chair, wearing chiton as well as himation, and holding a dolphin in his right hand. On the left, front of the himation of a third Nereid, moving to right. Fragment (γ) has part of a fourth Nereid, running to right, the left arm outstretched. She wears a chiton, with a short kolpos and a flounce, and over it, shawl-wise, a himation. Relief-lines indicate the stripe near the lower edge of the flounce. The subject of the picture was probably Peleus struggling with Thetis, while her sisters flee to their father Nereus: compare, for example, two cups in London, London E 9 by the Euergides Painter, London E 73 by the Kleophrades Painter.1 The picture may have run right round the cup, as in London E 9, with Peleus and Thetis in the middle of one half and Nereus in the other. This is early work by Makron. We have remains of two other cups by him with fleeing Nereids. Suppl. Plate XIX fig. 3 shows three fragments in Florence, from the same early period as ours; a fragment in the Louvre has part of the right-hand figure on one half of a cup — the left arm of a Nereid running to right and looking back, and the end of the scarf round her head.2 The Nereid on the largest of the Florence fragments has the same chiton as appears on our fragment (γ): the same drawing of short kolpos and flounce occurs in other works of Makron, for example a cup in Vienna, a cup-fragment in London, and a maenad cup in the Käppeli collection at Meggen.3 The contours are in relief-lines, so are the ends of the beard. The dots of the necklace are in relief. Brown lines for the inner markings on the arm and hand of Nereus, for the wrinkles on the dolphin's head, for the minor details of the sleeves, for the 'interfolds' of the chitons. These 'interfolds' — really crinkles or furrows in the material, like the lines on the sleeves — are not very common in Makron, but recur, for instance, on a cup in the Faina collection, on a cup-fragment in Brunswick, and on a cup in Munich.4Brommer 1956, p. 189, no. B 27; Brommer 1960, p. 247, no. B 27; Para., p. 377, no. 16; Brommer 1973, p. 327, no. B 17; M. Tiverios, AM 96 (1981), p. 145, note 5; Kurtz & Sparkes 1982, pp. 29, 31-32, 40, 50, 52 (D. von Bothmer); CVA, Basel, 2, p. 45, under pl. 24, 1-4 (V. Slehoferova).