New York Metropolitan Museum 17.230.10
red-figure stemless cup by the Painter of Münich 2660
AVR(2) 784.25
about 460 bce.
No stem; Offset mouth; torus foot with tooled groove.
Interior: A schoolboy is walking along, carrying a writing tablet by its handle. The string by which the two parts of the folding tablet are tied together is clearly marked. He wears a himation and a wreath in his hair.
Exterior: (A) Two schoolboys, one holding a roll of manuscript, the other a writing tablet, are approaching the teacher, who sits on a rectangular seat grasping a stick. The teacher looks just like the boys and may in fact be one of them playing at being teacher. All three wear mantles and wreaths. (B) A similar scene, but the teacher is standing and holds out a short branch as a prize to the head of the class; the second boy is awaiting his turn, holding his walking stick. Again the teacher and boys are indistinguishable.
The scenes have a charming simplicity, but the execution is not very careful. The boys are nicely characterized as well-behaved school children somewhat in awe of their teacher. The pictures are by the Painter of Munich 2660, named after that kylix, one of his typical works. He carried on the traditions of Douris and painted chiefly cups with boys and youths in quiet poses -- pleasing but not very distinguished works; among the most attractive is the pyxis with women in the British Museum. Characteristic renderings are the small dot for the iris, often touching neither lid, the downward curve of the mouth line, the short strokes for the hair surrounding the face and neck, the straightish continuous line at the tips of the fingers, the single curve for the ankle. The stemless kylix at the Aldenham collection is closely related to ours. About 460 B.C. (Richter, 1936, pp. 136-7)
Also see Havelock (1982), p. 26.
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