Kylikes – those broad, shallow, stemmed drinking cups – were a great boon for vase painters, in that the broad expanse of their exterior walls provided a convenient canvas for complicated narrative scenes. Inside, however, with its limited flat space at the center of those concave walls, the tondo presented a dastardly little challenge.
And the best of cup painters rose to the challenge! Here, Makron (one of my top three favorite painters…) shows a handsome youth (which he labels as such) in such a way as to utilise all of that awkward tondo space.
Jaunty wreath perched on his head, walking stick brandished one hand, and drinking cup clutched precariously in the other (a kylix on a kylix! How meta…) he’s likely leaving the symposium and about to progress joyously in the streets outside with his companions.
I especially enjoy his legs here, in the midst of an exaggerated step, with the planted foot curving delightfully (improbably?) along the curved ground-line that has bound the painter’s field but not his imagination…
