A Signed Cylix by Duris, in Boston

Abstract

THE list given by Hartwig in 1893 (Griechische Meisterschalen, pp. 685 f.) of the vases, complete or fragmentary, signed by Duris as decorator (ASpt g'ypacfrev), includes twenty-six numbers, or, if we count the small bit from the Athenian Ac.ropolis and the three cylices which have disappeared and of which no drawings exist, thirty numbers. Of these thirty, twentyseven are cylices. In 1898 the Boston Museum of Fine Arts acquired a twenty-eighth cylix, belonging to Duris's earlier period (Twenty-Third Annual Report, pp. 65 f.). It is my privilege to make known a twenty-ninth cylix, which, if not ranking among the best works from that prolific master's hand, is by no means among the poorest. It belongs to his later period, i.e. about 480 B.c. This vase was for mahy years the property of Thomas Wilson, LL.D., Curator of the Division of Prehistoric Archaeology in the United States National Museum, Washington, D.C. It was found in 1886, between April 4 and 11, in the necropolis on the northwest slope of the rock on which Orvieto is situated. The discovery was made in the course of excavations conducted by Signor Riccardo Mancini, a well-known explorer of Orvieto, Dr. Wilson being himself present and assisting in the work. The tombs uncovered at this time had been disturbed