PLATE XCI.
[Fig. 152]. ADONIS AND APHRODITE: FROM A RED-FIGURED HYDRIA.
with drastic humour, is here refined and given a soul: even the Satyrs and Centaurs, the rugged monsters of the woods and mountains, are tamed by the new spirit which will not any longer endure brutality and obscenity.
The sleeping nymph Tragodia is not only correctly observed in her foreshortening, in movement and distribution of the weight of the body, she is also the vehicle of a wonderful feeling. The picture, which immediately prepares for the works of the Meidias painter and the ‘Pronomos’ master, and beside the great style of the Pelops and Giant vases shows us the continuance of the refined and elegant style, cannot have been produced long after Pheidias’ death.
The time of the School of Pheidias, of whose best works we have been introduced to a selection, gives us again a few artists’ names. The painter Aison gives us a Madrid kylix with the exploits of Theseus, which must be about contemporary with the Giant vase. On the Theseus of the interior the hair is dissolved into lively curls, which stand out dark on a lighter ground, and the plastic swelling of the belly goes to the utmost limit of what is possible; in his protectress Athena we see already the contrast between the leg that bears the weight and is covered by hanging folds, and the free leg, which is closely covered by the drapery; which is exaggerated by Aristophanes, whom the potter Erginos employed, just as is the hair with light under-painting, and the chiton clinging as if moist and blowing back. Aison, who began his activity even in Pheidian days, draws more elegantly than his younger colleague, but neither master initiated a new development of kylix painting. The greatness of both lay in exploiting as artizans accessible types.
With the works of Aristophanes we probably go further from the time of Pheidias than with the Naples fragment: the works of the ‘Meidias’ painter take us to the time of the Nike balustrade, i.e., the two last decades of the 5th century. They too are an echo of the art of the Parthenon pediments, but in travelling along the road this echo has lost its vigour. On the unsigned Adonis hydria in Florence (Fig. [152]) all the figures exuberate in lazy grace and fine motives of beauty. Particularly the groups, Adonis in the lap of Aphrodite, and Hygieia with Paidia, remind us of the Parthenon, the wonderful melting forms of the ‘Fates’ and other pediment figures. But what there was born of passion, is here become fashion, and is playfully treated. The excitement of the faces with wide nostrils, the bowing and bending of bodies conscious of their beauty, the supporting of arms and play of fingers, the whole extent of the carelessly united society on the wavy hill-lines ([p. 141]) in spite of all its grace has something of the formula about it. The style of the drapery is certainly an indication of the weakening of earlier vigour. The many and over elegant broken-up folds, which cling unnaturally close to breast and free leg, the curling of the cloak folds, and the independent movement of the tips, is a long way off the Parthenon pediments, which inaugurate this enhancement of style, but without loss of vigour and by a kind of natural evolution. The effort for fine effect, which is expressed in the rich patterning, is in noticeable contrast to the restlessness of the drapery. A certain inclination to pomp is characteristic of the post-Pheidian style. The raised gilt details of the clay, which we know already on the white ground lekythoi (Fig. [134]), the box of Megakles (Fig. [137]) and the works of the Eretria master ([p. 148]), are now in high honour, and are plentifully employed on the Adonis vase.
The Meidias painter also produced a series of similar pure pictures of ‘existence’ on hydriae, e.g., the fair Phaon, the singer ‘Thamyris,’ Paris with the goddesses,
