/internal/media/dispatcher/1051994/resize%25253Aformat%25253DthumbnailPitcher (oinochoe)about 445–430 B.C.the Pisticci PainterHeight: 22.7 cm (8 15/16 in.)Ceramic, Red FigureHenry Lillie Pierce Fund00.3660ITALIAN VASE PAINTING in ITALY, #1 (00.366)
Oinochoe (shape 3)
Attributed to the Pisticci Painter
Early Style. about 450 B.C.
Io, in the form of a cow, is being driven along by Argos, who stands in the foreground. Hermes follows from the left, his herald's staff in his extended left hand, his sword drawn back in his right. Argos looks back at Hermes and with his right hand raises his staff over his head to defend himself. Argos wears a chitoniskos, a cap of wool or skin, and a cloak of skin pinned at the throat. Hermes wears a chlamys and petasos. The drawing is in the Attic style, but unlike most Athenian renderings of the myth, Io is given a human face, and Argos is not panoptes.
The picture has lateral frames of narrow reserved lines. The upper frame is a large laurel wreath. The broad groundline consists of groups of four linked maeanders to right alternating with cross-squares. On top of the handle, where it meets the rim, is an enclosed, upright palmette.
Trendall and Webster (Illustrations, p. 32) thought it possible this picture was inspired by the lost Sophoclean satyr-play, "Inachos", but the subject and basic composition precede Sophocles' work; see Brommer, "Gottersagen", pp. 31-32; and E. Simon, AA 1985, pp.265-280.Vessels22.700000000015418701