South Italian - Campanian

Museum: Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
Size: 49cm (hydria)
Function: uncertain
Technique: red-figure with white, red and brown paint and washes
Style: South Italian Campanian
Subject/s: two women beside a small building with a pediment decorated with a central gorgoneion seem to look down upon Kadmos's encounter with the serpent. He holds an amphora, for the water from the spring guarded by the serpent, and a stone to throw at it. His companion stands on the other side of what appears to be an area made fertile by the spring, lush with flowers.
Date: mid-4th c.
Analysis: the shape is common in Campanian, the representation of a myth uncommon. The small temple-like structure shows the adept foreshortening that Agatharkos has introduced for scene painting, the florals near the pring recall the flower painting now being made popular by Pausias.