and Artemis. To punish Niobe’s hubris (arrogance) and teach the les-
son that no mortal could be superior to a god or goddess, Leto sent
her two children to slay all of Niobe’s many sons and daughters. On
the Niobid Painter’s krater, the horrible slaughter occurs in a
schematic landscape setting of rocks and trees. The figures are dis-
posed on several levels, and they actively interact with their setting.
One slain son, for example, not only has fallen upon a rocky out-
cropping but is partially hidden by it. The Niobid Painter also drew
the son’s face in a three-quarter view, something that not even Eu-
phronios and Euthymides had attempted.
PHIALE PAINTER Further insight into the appearance of mon-
umental panel painting of the fifth centuryBCEcomes from a white-
ground krater (FIG. 5-60) by the so-called Phiale Painter.The sub-
ject is Hermes handing over his half brother, the infant Dionysos,
to Papposilenos (“grandpa-satyr”). The other figures represent the
nymphs in the shady glens of Nysa, where Zeus had sent Dionysos, one
of his numerous natural sons, to be raised, safe from the possible wrath
of his wife Hera. Unlike the decorators of funerary lekythoi, the Phiale
Painter used for this krater only colors that could survive the heat of a
Greek kiln—reds, brown, purple, and a special snowy white reserved
for the flesh of the nymphs and for such details as the hair, beard, and
shaggy body of Papposilenos. The use of diluted brown wash to color
and shade the rocks may reflect the coloration of Polygnotos’s land-
scapes. This vase and the Niobid krater together provide a shadowy
idea of the character and magnificence of Polygnotos’s great paintings.
TOMB OF THE DIVER, PAESTUMAlthough all of the
panel paintings of the masters disappeared long ago, some Greek
mural paintings are preserved today. An early example is in the so-
called Tomb of the Diver at Paestum. The four walls of this small,
coffinlike tomb are decorated with banquet scenes such as appear5-60Phiale Painter,Hermes bringing the infant Dionysos to
Papposilenos (Athenian white-ground calyx krater), from Vulci, Italy,
ca. 440–435 bce. 1 2 high. Musei Vaticani, Rome.
In the Phiale Painter’s white-ground representation of Hermes and the
infant Dionysos at Nysa, the use of diluted brown to color and shade
the rocks may also reflect the work of Polygnotos.5-61Youth diving, painted ceiling of the Tomb of the Diver, Paestum, Italy, ca. 480 bce. 3 4 high. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Paestum.
This tomb in Italy is a rare example of Classical mural painting. The diving scene most likely symbolizes the deceased’s plunge into the Underworld.
The trees resemble those on the Niobid krater (FIG. 5-59).1 in.
1 ft.136 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE