Around the body, hoplites(foot soldiers) mounted on dolphins

This procession of identically dressed foot soldiers seems to advance with military precision. A number of other dolphin-riding hoplites appear on vases of this period. All are accompanied by a flute player, suggesting that this scene illustrates a dramatic chorus, probably from a contemporary play. The six dolphins would have seemed to leap and dive as the psykter bobbed in the ice water inside a large krater.

Inscription: Inscribed after each figure: EPIDELPHINOS, "upon the dolphin"

By 1961, on the art market, Geneva, Switzerland (Beazley 1961, p. 63); by 1965, collection of Norbert Schimmel; acquired October 26, 1989, gift of the Norbert Schimmel Trust.

Beazley, J. D. 1961. "An Amphora by the Berlin Painter." Antike Kunst 4: 63.

Beazley, J. D. 1963. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 1622-23.

Greifenhagen, A. 1965. "Delphinreiter auf einem Psykter des Oltos." Pantheon 23: 1-7, figs. 1-7.

Greifenhagen, A. 1974. In Ancient Art: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, edited by O. W. Muscarella. Mainz: P. von Zabern, no. 57.

Settgast, J., et al., eds. 1978. Von Troja bis Amarna: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York. Mainz: P. von Zabern, no. 76.

Milleker, Elizabeth J. 1992. "Ancient Art: Gifts from the Norbert Schimmel Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 49(4): p. 46.

Valavanis, P., and D. Kourkoumelis. 1996. Drinking Vessels. Athens: Hatzimichalis Estate, pp. 72-73.

Ambrosini, L. 1999-2000. "Ceramica falisca a figure rosse: The Satyr and Dolphin Group (Pittore di Würzburg 820) e lo schema iconografico del Dolphin Rider." Archeologia classica 51: 261, 263, fig. 24.

Steinhart, M. 2004. Die Kunst der Nachahmung: Darstellungen mimetischer Vorfuhrüngen in der griechischen Bildkunst archaischer und klassischer Zeit. Mainz: P. von Zabern, pl. 8, 2.

Picón, Carlos A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 106, pp. 100, 427.

Lezzi-Hafter, Adrienne. 2009. “Wheel without Chariot – A Motif in Attic Vase-Painting.” In Athenian Potters and Painters. Volume II, eds. John H. Oakley and Olgia Palagia. Oxford: Oxbow Books, p. 155 n. 13.