Chapter XVII
.). On the other side, the five figures on which exactly balance those on the first, we have a lesson on the flute and in drawing or writing; the seated figure in the middle holds a pen and an open tablet. The fifth figure in each case is a bearded man, seated on a stool watching the proceedings. In the field are suspended lyres, writing-tables, and rolls of manuscript. There is also a beautiful cup in the Louvre, the interior of which represents Eos with the body of Memnon; the exterior, Homeric combats.[1354] Of the three examples of his work in the British Museum, one is occupied with the labours of Theseus (Frontispiece); another (E 49) shows his love of slim nude figures, contrasted with careful and formal drapery. The peculiar shape of the heads should be noticed; also the treatment of the eye, as a circle with a dot in the centre. Like Epiktetos, a slave of precision, he in nearly all these cases avoids violence of action, and seeks after a quiet gracefulness. His peculiarly fine technical skill appears to have been much appreciated in his day.[1355]
=Hieron= has signed twenty-eight vases, all being kylikes except three, which are kotylae. His invariable formula is ἐποίησεν, and the signature is generally incised on the handle of the vase. Hartwig is inclined to attribute one or two cups with this signature to another master, who had a preference for introducing bald-headed figures[1356]; and, in regard to others, there is fairly certain evidence that they were not painted by him. For instance, a very fine kylix with the carrying off of Helen bears the name of _Makron_ as painter,[1357] and it is possible that others are actually painted by that artist, who in any case must have been a partner of his. His work is regarded by Hartwig as full of individuality and excellence. Hieron, on the other hand, is inclined to the repetition of certain types, little individualised. He seems to have been trained in the school of Oltos rather than that of Euphronios,[1358] except that he learned from the latter the use of foreshortening. His only καλός-name is that of Hippodamas, also used by Duris.
His subjects comprise scenes from myth and legend, musical and conversational groups, and Dionysiac scenes. He is fond of decorating his exteriors with rows of men and women of a somewhat sentimental type, smelling flowers, or in amorous converse. But he rises to higher flights in the Berlin cup (2290), with Maenads sacrificing to Dionysos Dendrites, and still more in the splendid kotyle in the British Museum (E 140 = Plate LI.), with the gathering of the Eleusinian deities at the sending forth of Triptolemos (see