ATTRIBUTED TO THE SAPPHO PAINTER, CIRCA 500-490 B.C.

The Sappho Painter, a member of the Diosphos Workshop, takes his name from an inscription on a hydria, decorated in Six’s Technique, in Warsaw (see p. 300 in J.D. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters). Most of his vases are black-figured, not infrequently on white-ground, where he occasionally works in a "semi-outline" style. Most of his lekythoi are of Type DL with cylindrical bodies, but for some, he chose the smaller, tapering shape, as seen here, called “Little Lion” (LL), which take their name from the common appearance of lions on the vessel shoulders. The example presented here has a four-figured scene centered by a horseman armed with a spear in combat with a crouching hoplite with a spear and large circular shield. On either side a youthful nude warrior walks away but looks back, both with a chlamys draped over one arm and a spear. The scene is framed above by a band of billet.