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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
‘The vases of the Acheloos Painter and those in his manner might have been included in the long Leagros list, as they are central examples of the Leagran style: I have placed them in a list of their own, but would insist that they are no less Leagran than the others.’ Thus Beazley, in the introduction to the long Leagran chapter in ABV. The Leagros Group is a large and embarrassingly homogeneous group of late sixth-century Attic black-figure vases; so stylistically homogeneous is it, in fact, that even Beazley admitted a certain defeat when it came to attributing most of them to their painters. As a group they have a well-defined personality, and much of what is true of any one vase is also true of the others, whence the particular problems of attribution. It is an important group because it is contemporary with the red-figure Pioneers, Euphronios, Euthymides, Phintias, and their coterie, and stylistically like their work; Beazley claimed in the ABV introduction that the Leagran pots were painted in the same workshop.
For photographs of vases and permission to use them, I should like to thank: Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, and Dr. H. Cahn; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Dr. R. V. Nicholls (Cambridge), Soprintendenza alle Antichità, Florence; Dr. K. Vierneisel (Antikensammlungen, Munich); Dr. D. von Bothmer (Metropolitan Musuem, New York); Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio); Dr. G. Beckel (Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg). I am also indebted to the Beazley Archive and its staff for help over several years, and to Professor J. Boardman and Dr. D. C. Kurtz for their comments on a preliminary draft of this article.
The following abbreviations are used in addition to the standard ones:
ABL C. H. E. Haspels, Attic Black-figured Lekythoi (1936).
ABS J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-figure: a Sketch (1928).
Boardman, ARFH J. Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period (1975).
Bull. Mus. Roy. Bulletin des Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Bruxelles.
CB ii L. D. Caskey and J. D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston ii (1954).
Development J. D. Beazley, The Development of Attic Black-figure (1951).
Drougou, APs S. Drougou, Der attische Psykter (1975).
Gerhard, EKV E. Gerhard, Etruskische und kampanische Vasenbilder (1843).
Inghirami F. Inghirami, Pitture di vasi etruschi (1852).
Isler, Acheloos H. P. Isler, Acheloos, eine Monographic (1970)
Jackson, E. Gk. Influence D. A. Jackson, East Greek Influence on Attic Vases, JHS Supplementary Paper xiii (1976).
Kurtz, AWL D. C. Kurtz, Athenian White Lekythoi (1975).
Lau T. Lau, F. Brunn, P. F. Krell, Die griechischen Vasen (1906).
Mingazzini P. Mingazzini, Vasi della Collezione Castellani (1930).
MM 56 Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, Auktion 56, Februar 1980.
NMW 2Handbook of the Nicholson Museum, Sydney (2nd edn. 1948).
Otago J. K. Anderson, Handbook to the Greek Vases in the Otago Museum (1953).
Plats attiques D. Callipolitis-Feytmans, Plats attiques à figures noires (1973).
Riv. Ist. Rivista del Reale Istituto di Archeologia e Storia d'Arte.
Sg. Passavant-Gontard Antike Kleinkunst der Sammlung R. von Passavant-Gontard (1929).
Studies Robinson ii Studies presented to David Moore Robinson ii (1953).
Tabl. I.P. Tableaux anciens brovenant de l'Hôtel de Madame I. Péreire (1937).
1 ABV 354.
2 Later printed as ABS in Proceedings of the British Academy 14 (1928).
3 ABV 141.
4 ABV 385.
5 Development 81 ff.
6 These subjects appear on ABV 363. 38; Development pl. 39, 1–2 (Quarrelling Heroes); ABV 362. 28 (murder of Troilos); ABV 362. 31, Paralipomena 164. 31 bis (Achilles and the body of Hector); ABV 363. 37, Development 115–16 (Neoptolemos and Polyxena); ABV 361. 12, 13 (Herakles and Geryon).
7 Beazley's Acheloos Painter list appears in ABV 382 ff. and Paralipomena 168ff. All unprefixed numbers which appear here are his, and refer to vases which appear to these lists. Those prefixed by L appear in the Leagros Group list, ABV 360 ff. The catalogue entries which appear later are either his, or, where the vase is not listed in ABV or Paralipomena, follow his cataloguing practice.
8 Beazley, J. D., Potter and Painter in Ancient Athens (1946) 37.Google Scholar
9 Development 86–7.
10 The Acheloos Painter's mature work is mainly on large vases, amphorae, hydriai, kraters; the late work is quite frequently on smaller shapes, lekythoi, this oenochoe, and kalpides.
11 e.g. on i, 4, 10, 30, 32.
12 Jackson, E. Gk. Influence 77, suggests that the neck of this hydria and the pictures are by different hands. I am uncertain about this; there are a few, ‘black bird’ vases by other painters close to the Leagros Group, and the florals themselves are like those on the Funcke lekythos discussed here as Add 12. On these see Kurtz, AWL 92 ff.
13 Hand B3 and B4 were linked by Langlotz, E., Griechische Vasen in Würzburg (1932) 62.Google Scholar Beazley knew of the third kalpis Hand B5, and although he did not include it in his lists, his notes on the mount of his photograph in the Beazley Archive suggest a connection with the other two. The scheme of decoration of all three vases is very similar; Hand B3 has very red figure patterns—maeander along the top of the picture, tongues at the bottom, the net-pattern at the sides, and the palmette-chain between the handles, cf. ARV 2 28. 14, Boardman, ARFH fig. 35 (Euthymides) and ARV 2 189. 73, Boardman, op. cit. fig. 136 (Kleophrades Painter).
14 None of the anatomical details here or on the horses of Hand A is unusual within the Leagros Group: see Moore, M., Horses on Black-Figured Greek Vases of the Archaic Period (New York University, Institute of Fine Arts, Dissertation, 1971) 223 ff.Google Scholar The general family resemblance between horses within the group is too close for attribution on minor details of anatomy alone. Hand A3 has a white horse: for other Leagran examples see Moore, op. cit. 377 and 122, A 855 (L 65) and A 856 (L 66). Beazley compares both these vases with L 67 and L 68, which belong to the Antiope Group, the Leagran sub-group of which the Acheloos Painter is a member. None of them, however, appears to be by Hand A or Hand B.
15 Plats attiques 141 ff. I hesitate to attribute the other vases belonging to the Mourners Workshop to the same hand, as D. Callipolitis-Feytmans does here.
16 I accept Beazley's identification, but for the possibility that he may be Theseus, see Shefton, B. B., Hesperia xxxi (1962) 344 ff.Google Scholar If it is Theseus, this is one of the very few black-figure pictures of his encounter with the Bull. For others, see Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage (3rd edn. 1973) 252 ff.Google Scholar
17 The pictures all appear on standard Leagran shapes, apart from the plate Hand B6. None has any peculiarities or signatures which help to distinguish hands.
18 JHS71 (1951) 182, 24.
19 Kunisch, N., Antiken der Sammlung Julius C. und Margot Funcke (1972) 84, 76.Google Scholar
20 For other examples of lions behaving as dogs cf. Oxford 1965, 125, and Oxford 217, CVA 3, 8 and 13 pls. 16. 3 and 25. 1. See also Sourvinou-Inwood, C.'s review of this fascicle in JHS 99 (1979) 214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 ARV 26. 1.
22 Isler, Acheloos 14.
