ATTRIBUTED TO THE KONNAKIS PAINTER, CIRCA 350 B.C.

The Konnakis Painter, who takes his name from an inscription on a fragment in Taranto, was the first to paint figures entirely in added colors against the black glaze of the vase. His reverse figures are frequently rendered entirely by incision with only minimal details painted, as seen on the satyr presented here (see J. M. Padgett, op. cit.).

The subject of the obverse is a paidagogos, the "little old man" from Greek tragedy who is entrusted with the care of a privileged child, typically a boy. From the 4th century B.C. onwards the paidagogos has a distinctive costume and appearance, as seen on numerous Greek vases from South Italy (see for example the Apulian red-figured calyx-krater by the Lycurgus Painter in Milan, the Apulian red-figured volute-krater by the Darius Painter in Naples, and the Apulian red-figured volute-krater, also by the Darius Painter, in Princeton, nos. 85, 92 and 94 in O. Taplin, Pots & Plays, Interactions between Tragedy and Greek Vase-painting of the Fourth Century B.C.). On the vase presented here the paidagogos has two fingers raised in the gesture of speech.