Python. Krater from S. Agata dei Goti in the British Museum (F 149). J.H.S. xi. pl. 6. Alkmena on the funeral pyre.
The characteristics of Assteas’ work are very marked, and, curiously enough, Python’s differs little from it. Both are essentially pictorial artists, trained in Greek traditions, and inheriting from Attic painters like Meidias the love of elaborate and minutely rendered draperies and picturesque grouping of figures at different levels. In the latter detail we also seem to see signs of the influence of Polygnotos.
There are many other vases in our museums which present the same features of style and treatment as these.[[1469]] Besides those already mentioned, the fondness for half-figures in the background, the large heads, pronounced features, and heavy masses of hair in the figures on these vases connect them unmistakably with the school represented by the two artists. It is not the style of Lucania or of Campania, still less that of Apulia; and yet it is clearly an Italian fabric. Some previous writers have maintained that Assteas came from (or was resident at) Tarentum, arguing thus partly on epigraphical grounds, partly on the ground of his employment of scenes from the farces,[[1470]] which, as we have seen, were popular in that city. But having regard to the fact that three out of five of Assteas’ vases were found at Paestum, and that he combines certain characteristics of Lucanian and Campanian fabrics, we may fairly assume that he (and therefore also Python) resided in that city, which lay on the border of the two districts.
We are thus enabled to establish a style of Paestum distinct from the other Italian fabrics—a conclusion at which the present writer and Signor Patroni arrived independently some years back. The latter has pointed out that several small details also point to that city—such as the gaily plumed helmet worn by Herakles on the Madrid vase, which resembles those worn by local warriors on paintings found in that city.[[1471]] And in the Naples Museum there are several other vases in the style of Assteas from Paestum.[[1472]] Signor Patroni dates Assteas about 350–320 B.C., Python a little later.
From Baumeister.
FIG. 107. VASE BY ASSTEAS IN MADRID: HERAKLES DESTROYING HIS CHILDREN.
The Madrid vase and the Python krater are in their way masterpieces, and form almost the finest examples we possess of South Italian vase-painting. Both are extraordinarily rich in colouring as well as in detail. The former (Fig. [107]) represents, as has been said, Herakles destroying his children the subject being treated in a manner which to us appears almost grotesque, not to say comic. But it is probable that this is due partly to the element of exaggeration which has been ascribed to the revival of tragedy (see p. [472]). The whole conception is obviously theatrical, with the setting of Herakles and his child, the principal figures, against a background formed, after theatrical models, by the front of the palace, through openings in which appear the horrified faces of Alkmena and Iolaos, and that of Mania, the goddess of madness. Herakles has already set fire to a confused pile of household furniture—tables, chairs, and wool-baskets—and a child clings to him in agony, while Megara tears her dishevelled hair; but their pleadings have no effect. In the Python krater the action is less violent and theatrical, but there is the same gaudiness of colouring and richness of embroidered costume. Alkmena is seated on the pyre, to which Amphitryon and Antenor are about to set light, and raises her hand in supplication to Zeus, whose bust is seen above. In answer to her prayer the Hyades or rain-nymphs pour down water from their pitchers to extinguish the flames. It should be noted that in this painting we have several successive stages of time combined in one (cf. Vol. II. p. [10]); the pyre is not yet lighted, but the water is already descending to extinguish it.
We now proceed to describe in detail the characteristics of the three principal fabrics, beginning with that of Lucania, as the earliest in character, if not necessarily in point of time. Lucanian vases stand nearer to the latest Attic fabrics than do those of the other districts, and do not present the same local peculiarities; nor do they sink like the others into a state of decadence and barbarism, but are very conservative in their style.
We note in them a much greater unity of style than in the vases of Campania, and everything points to one centre of fabrication. This is most probably Anzi, where the largest number have been found. Information as to provenance is unfortunately often vague, but few other places are given as sources (see p. [83]), almost the only other names being those of Pisticci and Pomarico. But the number of vases that it is possible to attribute to Lucania is not large in any case.
The designs are usually somewhat severe and restrained, and characterised by a certain stiffness of drawing and largeness of scale. The heads of figures are abnormally large, with great staring eyes and masses of hair rendered without detail. The draperies are comparatively free from ornamentation, only broad black borders and patterns of small dots being admitted. The clay is of a rich red colour, but accessory colours are exceedingly rare. Hence they present a great contrast to the Apulian and Campanian, with their masses of white and generally gaudy appearance. Another peculiarity is that fillets in the hair are rendered simply by leaving a narrow band across the head in the colour of the clay. The figures often stand in the air without the usual dotted ground-lines, but sometimes the ground is represented by a heap of loose stones. A favourite device is that of a half-shield seen in the upper part of the scene, as a sort of indication of locality or action.[[1473]] Fig. [108] gives a typical example of Lucanian vase-painting.