ATTRIBUTED TO THE FLYING ANGEL PAINTER, CIRCA 480 B.C.

The Flying Angel Painter takes his name from another Type C amphora in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, one side of which depicts a satyr holding his child on his shoulders with arms spread, in "flying angel" pose. According to J.M. Padgett ("The Workshop of the Syleus Sequence: Wider Circle," in J.H. Oakley, W.D.E. Coulson and O. Palagia, Athenian Potters and Painters. The Conference Proceedings, 1997, p. 216), amphorae of Type C shape have a long history in black-figure, but the shape was never popular, and there are very few red-figured examples. Most are decorated, as here, with a single unframed figure on each side. Only about 25 red-figured examples are known, and nearly half of them are by the Flying Angel Painter. Here we see on one side a youth, nude but for boots and a mantle over his shoulders, walking to the right while playing a lyre, and on the other, a youth shown in twisted back view moving to the right, looking back, with a chlamys draped over his left arm.