PLATE LXXXIV.
[Fig. 139]. POLYNEIKES OFFERS ERIPHYLE THE NECKLACE: FROM A RED-FIGURED PELIKE.
From Furtwängler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei.
ORPHEUS AMONG THE THRACIANS: FROM A RED-FIGURED KRATER.
drinking vessels, lead us to the beginning of the age of Pheidias.
This transition is also accompanied by some painters’ signatures, which become rarer, the more the individual performances of vase-painters are cast in the shade by the great art. The signatures do not present us with the first artists of the time. Hermonax is somewhat smooth and tedious, and Polygnotos, the namesake of the great painter, to judge from the mixed nature of his unoriginal style, must have lived by borrowing. His pelike from Gela is a Polygnotan vase with an Amazon scene; on the London stamnos, to be dated about the middle of the century, advanced and old-fashioned types are combined in an unpleasing fashion.