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Lot Essay
The Lysippides Painter takes his name from a kalos inscription on a neck amphora in London (BM B 211). Beazley considered him "a commendable successor of Exekias" (The Development of Attic Black-Figure, p. 70). Over thirty vases are ascribed to him, including the black-figured sides of several bilinguals. The red-figured sides of these bilinguals are attributed to the Andokides Painter. Beazley changed his mind several times over whether the two painters were the same, finally deciding to treat them as separate. Boardman (Athenian Black Figure Vases, p. 105) concludes that "the Andokides Painter did paint black figure and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that he and the Lysippides Painter are one and the same. It is at any rate quite inconceivable that he painted only red figure, since he seems to be one of the first, if not the first practitioner in the new technique, which was obviously invented by a skillful black figure artist..."
The scene of warriors in combat over a fallen companion is a common one in the Archaic Period. When there is no inscription naming the combatants, identification is seldom possible, but an episode from the Trojan War is the likely source of inspiration. Possibilities include Menelaos and Hektor fighting over the body of Euphorbos, Diomedes and Aeneas over Pandaros, Agamemnon and Koon over Iphidamas, and Ajax and Hektor over Patroklos. According to Wescoat (Poets & Heroes: Scene of the Trojan War, p. 32), "Death was not the end for the defeated warrior. If captured by the enemy, his body was stripped of armor; his weapons became the prize of the proud victor. There was the possibility that the enemy might mutilate and further dishonor the corpse by leaving it unburied. This last represented the height of inhumanity to the Greeks, for to them the rite of burial was the most basic action separating humans from animals. Therefore, if the warriors captured the corpse of an enemy, they could hold it to ransom, often for vast treasure." The treatment of the deceased warrior on this vase is a tour de force.
The scene of warriors in combat over a fallen companion is a common one in the Archaic Period. When there is no inscription naming the combatants, identification is seldom possible, but an episode from the Trojan War is the likely source of inspiration. Possibilities include Menelaos and Hektor fighting over the body of Euphorbos, Diomedes and Aeneas over Pandaros, Agamemnon and Koon over Iphidamas, and Ajax and Hektor over Patroklos. According to Wescoat (Poets & Heroes: Scene of the Trojan War, p. 32), "Death was not the end for the defeated warrior. If captured by the enemy, his body was stripped of armor; his weapons became the prize of the proud victor. There was the possibility that the enemy might mutilate and further dishonor the corpse by leaving it unburied. This last represented the height of inhumanity to the Greeks, for to them the rite of burial was the most basic action separating humans from animals. Therefore, if the warriors captured the corpse of an enemy, they could hold it to ransom, often for vast treasure." The treatment of the deceased warrior on this vase is a tour de force.