[Illustration: PLATE LXXX. Fig. 132. BATTLE WITH CENTAURS: RED-FIGURED PSYKTER. Fig. 133. TOP-PLAYER: FROM A WHITE-GROUND KYLIX WITH THE SIGNATURE OF THE POTTER HEGESIBULOS.] [Illustration: PLATE LXXXI. Fig. 134. ACHILLES KILLS PENTHESILEIA: INTERIOR OF A RED-FIGURED KYLIX. _From Furtwängler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei._] the kylikes of Berlin and Athens on white ground, but he heightens the red-figured technique by the application of thinned black glaze, by dull red and light grey surfaces, with brown and white additions, and by applications of gold. The four figures which are forced into this circle almost burst the frame, not merely by the disproportion of their tall forms, but still more by their inner greatness and passion. In the midst of the battle-field, where the sword rages, and the ground lies full of corpses, Achilles has overtaken the Amazon queen, and furious with rage, plunges his sword in her heart: however much her hands and eyes plead for mercy, it is too late. The features of Penthesileia betray more of inner life than those of Orpheus: and on a second Munich kylix, on which Apollo in presence of Ge slays her son Tityos, the master has gone a step further in physiognomy. The three faces are as convincingly graduated in expression as for example those on the beautiful ‘Lament for the dead,’ by a contemporary master, in Athens. On the big interior of his kylikes (Fig. 134) the ‘horse’ master could give freer play to his genius than on the exteriors, which, as in the kylikes of Berlin and Athens, he adorned with pretty scenes from the stable. The contrast between the great round pictures with their fine technique, and the lightly sketched exteriors, is so great, that some have thought of two artists working in the same studio, who divided the work, so that the ‘horse’ master would be different from the Penthesileia master; but the white-ground exterior of the Orpheus kylix seems to build the bridge. It is certainly characteristic that the exteriors of kylikes in this period no longer tempted talented painters to such lively compositions, as in the days of the Brygos and Perugia painters, and that even in the lifetime of the great Euphronios the paratactic decorative style most consistently prepared by Duris laid hold of these exteriors. The new style required big surfaces, and the most faithful reflexions of wall-painting are to be found on large vases.