The fruits of this study appear on the Munich Priam vase (Fig. [105]), in the drawing of hands, in the differentiated pose of the legs, in the bold front view of the foot, still more on the reverse in the bendings and turnings of three naked drunken men with full indication of muscles. Certainly the limitations of his eye for perspective appear, when the further from sight of the two chest muscles comes under the nearer one, when the woman’s breast is turned outwards, when the transition of the breast seen in front view to the legs in profile is not made clear, and the head of the man walking to the right and looking round in archaic fashion is still turned in profile to the left; the artist, it is true, breaks through the old scheme of the figure in one place, but his avoidance of lines shewing depth is so strong that he prefers to put those parts of the body, of whose front and back he is conscious, simply one beside the other. But it is just the contrast between the bold attempt at progress on the painter’s part and the perspective constraint, the feeling of conflict; if you like, that gives their charm to the vase-paintings of this period.
Though the bodies are no longer as previously packed into the garments, and drapery is rather subordinate to the treatment of the body, studies in drapery also have been very fruitful. The contrast between the heavy woollen himation, and the more delicate crinkles of the linen chiton is plainly marked. The depths of the folds in the cloak, according as they are close together or more freely distributed, are given in gradation by thicker or thinner lines of colour; the chiton folds join in separate masses and run out in the expressive so-called swallow-tail borders, which divide the outline of the drapery much more rhythmically than the layered borders of the ‘Andokides’ painter.
Chalkidian painters had already rendered scenes of arming. But those of Euthymides mark a great psychological advance. The paternal anxiety of the bald-pated old man and the nervousness of the mother’s pet making his first début are finely expressed. The feeling for everyday life, in an age which suddenly recognized in common things a world of artistic problems, was keener than ever. What cared Euthymides about his subject “Hector’s departure”? He drew a scene from his neighbour’s door and added heroic names.
His best work the master left unsigned, the Munich amphora, on which Theseus under protest from Helen (note the thumb) with gay impudence carries off Korone (Fig. [107]). The head of the ravisher, which gets its increased liveliness not merely from the shifting of the pupil from the centre inwards, may serve as example of the newly-conquered possibilities of expression, and the extract from the picture may give an idea of the charm of archaic art.
PLATE LXI.
[Fig. 107]. THE RAPE OF KORONE BY THESEUS; FROM AN AMPHORA BY EUTHYMIDES.
[Fig. 108]. DRUNKEN SATYR: FROM AN ARCHAIC RED-FIGURED KYLIX.