Note 148 — Chapter III · AISCHYLOS AND THE VASE PAINTINGS

The present whereabouts of the vase is not known. Pub. Baumeister, Denkmäler, ii. p. 1118; Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29. 9; Reinach-Millingen, Peintures, ii. 68; also as frontispiece to the 4th ed. of Paley’s Aeschylus. He disposes of it in a line or two, and, with the usual accuracy which characterizes philologists when dealing with matters of archaeology, says the vase is ‘probably nearly contemporaneous’ with the Eumenides (p. 584). The composition is remarkably like the Assteas painting, Wiener Vorlegeblätter, ser. i. pl. 7. The figures of Apollo and Kadmos, as well as the two Athenas, have much in common. There is the same roundness and plumpness in the figures. Furthermore, Assteas was partial to bust figures and never lost an opportunity to introduce them. The border on the veil of the female bust of our vase is Campanian, as are also certain other details. All this brings me to the opinion that Assteas, who was very likely from Paestum and may have been in touch with Campanian styles as well, was the painter of our vase. It is at least from the school of Assteas. A painting by Python (J. H. S. 1890, pl. 6), one of the set of Assteas, exhibits the same treatment of hair and decoration that is found on the painting, fig. 9.