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View: Side A
Drinking cup (skyphos) showing an athlete with a wreath
Greek, South Italian
Late Classical Period
about 340–330 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Italy, Campania
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Overall: 14.2cm (5 9/16in.)
Diameter: 14.2cm (5 9/16in.)
Diameter: 14.2cm (5 9/16in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1900
Accession Number03.822
CollectionsEurope, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Vase-Painting in Italy (MFA), no. 084.
DescriptionThis victorious athlete, an inhabitant of southern Italy, is shown wearing shorts or a loincloth. A proper Greek athlete would have been represented nude, but this custom was not universally adopted outside of Greece, and this athlete probably was a native Italian, perhaps an Oscan.
Side A: Youth wearing white, apicate fillet, a loincloth edged with yellow dots, shoes and a yellow belt stands to the left, his right foot on a rock. With his right hand he holds out a white fillet and with his left a white wreath with yellow ends and central band. The belt and loincloth suggest that he is a native Italian.
Side B: A white-skinned woman wearing a peplos and yellow bracelets and shoes stands to the left. A belt of yellow beads circles her waist. Her hair is tied up with a white fillet with trailing yellow ends. She holds a white wreath with yellow ends and central band in her extended right hand and rests her left hand on her hip.
ITALIAN VASE PAINTING in ITALY, #84 (03.822)
Skyphos
Attributed to the Errera Painter
about 340-330 B.C.
A: A youth wearing a white, apicate fillet, a loincloth edged with yellow dots, shoes, and a yellow belt stands to the left, his right foot on a rock. With his right hand he holds out a white fillet and with his left a white wreath with yellow ends and central band. The belt and loincloth suggest that he is a native Italian; compare the warrior on the painter's neck-amphora in Brussels (A 3550: Trendall, LCS, p. 322, no. 704, pl. 126).
B: A white-skinned woman wearing a peplos and yellow bracelets and shoes stands to the left. A belt of yellow beads circles her waist. Her hair is tied up with a white fillet with trailing yellow ends. She holds a white wreath with yellow ends and central band in her extended right hand and rests her left hand on her hip.
A band of egg-pattern circles the rim. Large flowers flank both figures, and there are large palmettes under the handles. The circling groundline consists of two parallel stripes.
The Errera Painter worked in Capua in the third quarter of the century in a workshop that included the Laghetto Painter, the Caivano Painter, and the Painter of B.M. F 63, to whom he is particularly close in style. The beaded belt and plump white wreaths were among his favorite motifs. His women are often painted white.
Side A: Youth wearing white, apicate fillet, a loincloth edged with yellow dots, shoes and a yellow belt stands to the left, his right foot on a rock. With his right hand he holds out a white fillet and with his left a white wreath with yellow ends and central band. The belt and loincloth suggest that he is a native Italian.
Side B: A white-skinned woman wearing a peplos and yellow bracelets and shoes stands to the left. A belt of yellow beads circles her waist. Her hair is tied up with a white fillet with trailing yellow ends. She holds a white wreath with yellow ends and central band in her extended right hand and rests her left hand on her hip.
ITALIAN VASE PAINTING in ITALY, #84 (03.822)
Skyphos
Attributed to the Errera Painter
about 340-330 B.C.
A: A youth wearing a white, apicate fillet, a loincloth edged with yellow dots, shoes, and a yellow belt stands to the left, his right foot on a rock. With his right hand he holds out a white fillet and with his left a white wreath with yellow ends and central band. The belt and loincloth suggest that he is a native Italian; compare the warrior on the painter's neck-amphora in Brussels (A 3550: Trendall, LCS, p. 322, no. 704, pl. 126).
B: A white-skinned woman wearing a peplos and yellow bracelets and shoes stands to the left. A belt of yellow beads circles her waist. Her hair is tied up with a white fillet with trailing yellow ends. She holds a white wreath with yellow ends and central band in her extended right hand and rests her left hand on her hip.
A band of egg-pattern circles the rim. Large flowers flank both figures, and there are large palmettes under the handles. The circling groundline consists of two parallel stripes.
The Errera Painter worked in Capua in the third quarter of the century in a workshop that included the Laghetto Painter, the Caivano Painter, and the Painter of B.M. F 63, to whom he is particularly close in style. The beaded belt and plump white wreaths were among his favorite motifs. His women are often painted white.
ProvenanceBy 1903: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: The following objects [MFA 03.805-03.833, 03.836-03.837, 03.906] were found in one cemetery in Campania.); purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren, March 24, 1903