In fiery impetus only one of the vase-paintings of this period can compare with the Pelops vase, the somewhat later Naples fragment of a Gigantomachia (Figs. 149-151). An invention of truly Titanic force, which is also echoed on other later vases, must be the basis of this picture, and even the unusual division (unsuited to vases) by an arch points to a model from another branch of art. In a rocky landscape the fight for existence of the gods and the sons of the earth-goddess takes place in the early morning, when Helios is rising on the vault of heaven and Selene is sinking down into ocean, as on the east pediment of the Parthenon. The bold movements, the twistings and bendings of the combatants, the ‘lost’ profile, the swellings and packings of the skin and muscles are rendered with sure touch. The plastic effect of the middle line of chest and abdomen is increased by doubling, and horizontal folds bring out the lower part of the forehead, the locks of hair and tips of hide flutter as if they were alive; the breasts of the earth-goddess are modelled out of the drapery as if bare, the eyes are deep-set, the underlips project. That the rendering of the female body was now not less accomplished than that of the male, beside the lekythos in Athens, a picture of a different order may show. On an Oxford jug appears in the spaciousness favoured by these vases an old theme, Satyr and Nymph (Fig. 154). One can scarcely realize the nobility of Pheidian conception more fully than by comparing this scene with the Phineus kylix (Fig. 74) and its congeners. What early ages had represented [Illustration: PLATE XC. Figs. 149-151. GIGANTOMACHIA: FRAGMENT OF A RED-FIGURED KRATER.] [Illustration: PLATE XCI. Fig. 152. ADONIS AND APHRODITE: FROM A RED-FIGURED HYDRIA.] with drastic humour, is here refined and given a soul: even the Satyrs and Centaurs, the rugged monsters of the woods and mountains, are tamed by the new spirit which will not any longer endure brutality and obscenity. The sleeping nymph Tragodia is not only correctly observed in her foreshortening, in movement and distribution of the weight of the body, she is also the vehicle of a wonderful feeling. The picture, which immediately prepares for the works of the Meidias painter and the ‘Pronomos’ master, and beside the great style of the Pelops and Giant vases shows us the continuance of the refined and elegant style, cannot have been produced long after Pheidias’ death.