The Death of Sarpedon: Workshops and Pictorial Experiments Athena Tsingarida A ttic vase-paintings depicting the young Lycian prince the development and transmission of a specific subject Sarpedon, slain by Patroklos and carried away by the matter, “The Death of Sarpedon”, helps confirm work- twins Hypnos and Thanatos, have been widely studied. shop connections deduced mainly on stylistic grounds, The theme occurs on a handful of vases dating to the Late while also suggesting further associations between vase- Archaic and Early Classical periods and becomes the painters or studios, not primarily related in terms of prototype for later depictions on white-ground lekythoi draught smanship. where the corpse of an unidentified male or female is sub- stituted for the body of Sarpedon. Several scholars have dealt with the development, chronology and artistic in- The Death of Sarpedon: A Limited Corpus ventiveness of the subject,1 and some recent publications also focus on various iconological aspects.2 In this paper, Sarpedon is a rare subject in Greek art. The hero is de- I would like to discuss the origin, treatment and diffusion picted fighting in battle on the Siphnian Treasury at Del- of the scene on the corpus of vases dated to ca. 525 – 470 phi and on a few Corinthian and Attic vases. The earliest B. C. for the light it might shed on workshop organiza- known example of the removal of Sarpedon’s body from tion. the battlefield is a red-figure cup by Euphronios which In his remarkable study on Exekias’ interest in Trojan was followed a few years later by Euxitheos’ monumen- scenes, J. Boardman already outlined the importance of tal calyx-crater decorated by the same painter and now in iconography in the definition of a vase-painter or his stu- Rome (Fig. 1). According to the existing evidence, Euph- dio.3 Yet, in a recent article devoted to the Penthesilean ronios is generally credited with the invention of this workshop, R. Osborne argues against this approach, and composition that inspired most contemporary and later concludes that “Attic pottery workshops of the 5th cen- red- and black-figure scenes with this subject. Yet, in ad- tury did not specialize in particular scenes”, and that “be- dition to the securely identified scenes,5 there are a few yond the minimal pairing of a potter and a painter, the vases decorated with a similar composition – a dead hero workshop had no point”.4 Such a radical conclusion bears carried away from the battlefield – that have been inter- further investigation! Thus this study will explore how preted as depicting the dead Memnon taken away by his Fig. 1 Rome, Villa Giulia (ex-New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1972.10.11), side A 136 Athena Tsingarida winged mother Eos, or as a conflation based on scenes of comrades whose poses indicate the effort of their task: both the dead Memnon and the dead Sarpedon.6 Al- one at the far right is dragging the body, while the other though the identification of these scenes is not the issue on the left is bending over it in an attitude very close to of this article, they are occasionally taken into account in that adopted by Hypnos and Thanatos a generation later the discussion about the treatment of the iconographical on Euphronios’ crater. subject by vase-painters following Euphronios’ produc- Among earlier red-figure vase-painters, Psiax and tion. Oltos have been seen as “the teachers” of the young Eu phronios in Chachrylion’s workshop,10 but Exekias’ distinctive black-figure compositions and treatment of The Sources of Inspiration for the “Death of subject matter seem to have also influenced Euphronios Sarpedon”: The Exekian Workshop in some of his scenes. The interest of both painters in ren- dering human feelings has been acknowledged,11 but Ex- The dead warrior carried away from the battlefield is one ekias’ approach to narrative also seems to foreshadow the of the oldest subjects in Attic vase-painting, starting with later experiments led by Euphronios. M. B. Moore noted the representations of Ajax shouldering the body of that on his neck-amphora in Munich Exekias reduced the Achilles. This scene became the most common arrange- figured scene to its essential by eliminating extra figures, ment for depicting the rescue of the warrior’s corpse concentrating only on Ajax carrying Achilles, a narrative throughout the Archaic period. device unusual in black-figure.12 Both sides of the am- The red-figure calyx-crater decorated by Euphronios phora are decorated with the same scene, and the com- at the turn of the 6th century B. C. illustrates a rare treat- position, although still framed by floral patterns, shows ment of the subject that finds its roots in several compo- only the central group without companions. It prefigures sitions used by Exekias and his workshop. On this crater, the arrangement developed by Euphronios on a few the dead Sarpedon stretches all the way across the front neck-amphorae with twisted handles which are decorat- while he is being lifted by two winged warriors, Hypnos ed with a single scene on, the rendering of which is re- and Thanatos, who each grasp one side of the heavy body duced to a single figure on each side without ground-line and visibly bear the burden of the great weight of the and frame.13 dead hero. The introduction of two figures kneeling to Another feature further points to iconographical con- pick up a body in the middle of the battle is known nections between Exekias and Euphronios. Both share a already from a fragmentary cup attributed to Kleitias common interest in the Athenian hero Akamas. Accord- (Fig. 2),7 but the interest in indicating the difficulty of the ing to the extant material, Exekias is credited with the in- task was introduced by Exekias in his representations of troduction of this figure that occurs only very occasion- Ajax carrying Achilles.8 From the known material, it is ally on black and red-figure vases.14 In late sixth-century also Exekias or members of his workshop who combined vase-painting, this son of Theseus is known only from both features: the rendering of the strain of the task and the red-figure cup signed by Euphronios who depicts the use of two warriors to lift the corpse. In the middle of him carrying the dead Sarpedon,15 but Akamas appears the composition on a black-figure amphora in Leipzig on few vases decorated by vase-painters of the next gen- (Fig. 3),9 a naked, slightly bearded man is lifted by two eration.16 Fig. 2 Manisa, Museum 2137 (from Sardis), Merrythought cup, side A. THE DEATH OF SARPEDON: WORKSHOPS AND PICTORIAL EXPERIMENTS 137 Hermes but acts like him, while the central group is flanked with two lateral figures playing the same role as Leodamas and Hippolytos in Euphronios’ scene. The small winged figure, the eidolon, that flies at the back above Patroklos(?), is a further addition to the scene. Although badly preserved, a calyx-crater in the Getty suggests a similar composition: on one fragment, the head of a bearded and helmeted warrior is preserved along with the left part of a horizontal naked body.20 The hop- lite must be lifting the corpse. M. Robertson proposed to identify the scene as Memnon carried away by Ethiopi- ans,21 but I prefer to see it as the “Death of Sarpedon”, since the preserved warrior does not display any barbar- ian or negroid features but rather a facial rendering close to those seen on vases painted by Euphronios or Onesi- mos. In the case of a calyx-crater in the Louvre (Fig. 4), the “Death of Sarpedon” is clearly identified by inscrip- tions.22 On this vase, details in the composition are sig- nificantly different from Euphronios’ scene: the subject matter is limited to a central core consisting of the dead warrior and two winged figures and the downward direc- Fig. 3 Leipzig, Antikenmuseum T 2176, side A. tion of the eidolon suggests that the body is being de- posited in Lycia and not lifted from the battlefield;23 Hypnos and Thanatos are not warriors but naked winged figures, and their pose is slightly different from their The Transmission of the Subject Matter counterparts on Euphronios’ crater. The echo of the to Late Archaic Red-figure Vase-painters: composition on the latter, nevertheless, suggests that his A Workshop Hallmark? experiments were not unknown to the painter of the Louvre crater. The composition developed on the monumental calyx- The influence of Euphronios’ production on these crater by Euphronios became a model for a few contem- scenes has been generally acknowledged in earlier litera- porary or slightly later vase-painters. From the extant ture, but no study raised the question of how these icono- material, three calyx-craters are known which are deco- graphical conventions might have been passed on from rated with scenes that owe much to the image on Euph- one painter to another. There is, however, evidence sug- ronios’ masterpiece (Fig. 1). The calyx-crater from the Greek necropolis of Pezzi- no, near Agrigento, was extensively published by P. Arias, who identified the dead hero with Patroklos.17 Even if this scene may represent a different subject matter, the two compositions share striking similarities that strongly point to Euphronios’ influence.18 In the centre of the Pezzino crater lies the dead hero who is not naked as on Euphronios’ crater but covered with a patterned gar- ment. Nevertheless, the rendering of the hero’s hair in indi vidual locks drawn in black glaze closely recalls the fair-haired Sarpedon, a feature that has been considered a hallmark of Euphronios’ style.19 As Sarpedon, Patro - k los(?) wears only greaves, and his body is posed so as to show the lower foot in a frontal view.