Lot Essay
The earliest eye-cups supplemented by the addition of a nose and satyr ears, with a distinctive heavy foot with a plain concave edge, were the product of Chalcidian artists working in South Italy (see for example the cup by the Phineus Painter in Munich, no. 480 in J. Boardman, Early Greek Vase Painting). The type was copied in Athens, likely in the workshop of Nikosthenes and Pamphaios, who were keen observers of the fashions prevalent in the west, including Etruria (see pp. 107-108 in J. Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases). For a similar Athenian example, signed by Nikosthenes as potter, now in the Menil Foundation, see no. 170 in H. Hoffmann, Ten Centuries that Shaped the West.