What exuberance! This pelike in Boston (attributed to master painter Euphronios or a young and equally innovative Euthymides) is a gem.
One side shows two nude youths jumping to the accompaniment of an aulos player. They are in near perfect unison, bodies frontal, heads tuned towards the musician, impressively far off the ground, with legs bent at ninety degrees and synchronised arms. Their hair is long and shows a bit of bounce (as do some other dangly bits), and their expressions are pure, thin-lipped focus.
The opposite side is even more fun: a brilliant flourish on the part of the artist. The pipe player is in more or less the same position, but this time the youths from the front of the vase are shown from the rear. The jumpers’ buoyancy seems heightened even further – hair still steaming loose, and bums floating. Rather than a simple inversion, it seems as though a different moment in their activity is shown: their arms are now brought down to their sides, heads facing away from the aulos player. Abundant inscriptions seem to name all three figures, and exclaim over the jumpers’ youthful beauty.
It has been suggested repeatedly that the ‘bibasis’ (a Spartan rhythmic dance) might be shown. This seems a bit too textually dependent and myopic to me. Wind and rhythm instruments are known to have played important accompanying roles in athletic competitions, games, dance, military training and battle. This ingenious artistic conceit could be showing any of these activities, and with an unmatched precision and liveliness.
