Phintias and Euthymides
Jenifer Neils, Case Western Reserve University

2. Mythological Scenes Part 2

The struggle for the tripod is represented in a unique fashion on this cup: it resembles a wrestling match with Herakles and Apollo confronted, and the hero's quiver hanging in the background as if on the palaestra wall. In his later version of this scene, on a signed amphora (Type A) in Tarquinia (Tarquinia RC 6843;Illustration 11), [6] Phintias adopts the traditional format: Herakles dashing off with Apollo in close pursuit.[7] But unlike the Andokides Painter (New York 63.11.6) and others who also favored this scene, Phintias leaves out the attendant goddesses and monumentalizes the antagonists, displaying their developed musculature in adventurous poses. Note the frontal legs and foreshortened feet, so typical of the Pioneers.

Illustration 11

Illustration 12

Illustration 13

Herakles, normally a bearded man, is here shown as a handsome youth with beautifully coiffed curls rendered in relief, downy sideburns executed with dilute glaze, and carefully drawn eyelashes. This composition was copied by a fellow Pioneer on an unattributed amphora in Boston (Boston 63.1515; Illustration 12) [8] but this lesser artist felt the necessity of placing a palm tree between the protagonists, and depicted Herakles in the traditional fashion with a beard (Illustration 13).

The reverses of both amphoras show Dionysiac revelers. On the Boston vase (Illustration 14) there is a somewhat tame maenad with two vines in the center, flanked by two excited satyrs (Illustration 15). The scene on the vase by Phintias in Tarquinia is much more ambitious with five figures overflowing the panel.

Illustration 14

Illustartion 15

Dressed in a long chiton and himation, a stately Dionysos stands in the center, holding a grape-laden vine and his common attribute, the kantharos. A maenad armed with a thyrsos and embraced by a satyr cavorts on either side. Phintias here shows off his skills as a mature red- figure painter; from eyelashes and fingernails to complex groupings of overlapping satyr, panther and maenad, the vase is a tour de force. Telltale signs of his hand are the neck of the chiton rendered with three parallel lines, and the U) anklebone, and the wrinkled frontal face of the satyr at the left.