Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 92-93.(Budapest, 2000)
SZILÁGYI, JÁNOS GYÖRGY: "Les Adieux". A Column-krater of the Syracuse Painter
12. Detail of the neck ornament of the column-krater fig. 5 Budapest vase: the tendrils framing the palmettes end in loops rather than in scrolls and the single palmettes are separated by lotus flowers. The lotus flower that closes the right side of the neck-ornament (fig. 12) has no parallel on any of the painter's known vases, but, though almost impossible to interpret botanically, still neatly finds its place among the lotus-pattern motifs that appear with diverse variations on vases from the first half of the century. 14 The more careless and sketchy workmanship of the reverse is not uncommon in Attic vases of the period; the painter himself hardly ever makes use of neck decoration on the reverse of his vases (for an exception see krater (2)) - a trait in which he is again not alone. A typical, though not unparalleled personal characteristic is the use of diluted brown lines for particulars commonly done in black: see for instance the musculature of the warriors' legs or the borders of cloaks. 15 Especially striking is the difference in the care taken over hands and feet: the fingers are carefully drawn with relief lines, the toes generally forgotten, or if not, separated by relief lines only on a foot shown frontally, brown lines marking the toes of feet done in side view. 16 The six-fingered hand of the Budapest krater 's left-side skeptron-holder is not an exceptional error: it occurs in the work of the great masters as well. Apart from the decoration of the obverse, the painter, as in his later works, has given little thought to the technical standard of execution. This is shown clearly by the identical form of the lotus buds decorating the top of the mouth and the rays at the base of the body as well as the slovenly drawing of the connecting tendrils, at times interrupted, at times inorganic; and, in the first place, by the unevenness of the black glaze mentioned above. The poorly defined pose of the left-hand figure on side A, moving away out of the 14 Jacobsthal, P., Ornamente griechischer Vasen, Berlin 1927. 171-172. 15 Beazley, Boston, loc. cit. (n.9). 16 Feet in side view: e.g., on the obverse of the Budapest vase, the left feet of the two male figures on the right. Frontal legs: e.g. (1) the figure on the extreme right of side B; (35bis) the middle Hesperis.
