The Kleophrades Painter
Michael Padgett, Princeton University

13. Shapes: Psykters

As nearly a quarter of his vases are kraters, it is not surprising to find that the young Kleophrades Painter continued the Pioneer's tradition of decorating psykters, wine-coolers which stood within kraters filled with cold well water or mountain snow. All three examples are among his earliest works and all are of the unlidded variety, with no lugs or handles on the shoulder to interrupt the pictures.[70] On the Princeton vase, six symposiasts recline on what seems to be a continuous couch, but what should actually be three klinai around the walls of a small dining room.[71] The revelers drink, sing, play musical instruments, and fling their wine dregs in the game of kottabos. Beneath them, in a reserved band meant to represent the floor level, are dogs, walking sticks, and a number of baskets and vessels, all executed in black-figure. A similar band of black vessels circles the lower body of the psykter Compiègne 1068 (ARV2, 188, 66), but here they are joined by the feet of Herakles and Dionysos. The latter stand amidst a row of satyrs, who kneel on top of a platform, perhaps representing the couches where the god and hero will soon take their ease. On the third psykter, Louvre G 57 (ARV2, 188, 65), the subject is a thiasos of traditional type, with Dionysos walking amid a retinue of satyrs and maenads. The shapes of these psykters differ enough from those by Euthymides, Euphronios, and their compatriots that they cannot be assigned to a potter in the Pioneer workshop.[72]

72. Drougou grouped the Louvre and Compiègne psykters with a third, which Beazley thought near the Kleophrades Painter(Athens, Agora P 7240; ARV2, 193, 1), but it is too fragmentary for meaningful classification. With these Drougou also associated a black-figure psykter near the Antimenes Painter (Louvre F 321), but it is only marginally related. See Drougou 1975, 47-48; and 17, no. A 24, pl. 14, 2 (Louvre G 57); 17, no. A 25, pl. 15 (Compiègne 1068); 17, no. A 26 (Athens, Agora P 7240); 14, no. A 9, pl. 14, 1 (Louvre F 321).