Three non-joining wall fragments. Dull, hard glaze on inside. Max. dim. a) 0.091, b) 0.075, c) 0.071. L. Talcott, Hesperia 8, 1939, pp. 268--269, figs. 1, 2 (the fragments have been relettered since this publication; in the description below, the old letters are given in parentheses); A. Pickard-Cambridge, Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 2nd ed., Oxford 1968, pp. 180--181, fig. 32; Choes and Anthesteria, p. 86, cat. no. 207, fig. 141; T. B. L. Webster, Hesperia 29, 1960, pl. 65:A1; M. Bieber, History of the Greek and Roman Theatre, 2nd ed., Princeton 1961, p. 23, fig. 74 (fragment a); C. Kardara, ἈρχἘφ , 1964, p. 58, fig. 6 (fragment a); E. Gebhardt, in The Muses at Work: Arts, Crafts and Professions in Ancient Greece and Rome, C. Roebuck, ed., Cambridge, Mass./London 1969, p. 257, fig. 1 (mask on fragment a); N. G. L. Hammond and W. Moon, AJA 82, 1978, p. 375, figs. 3, 4; N. Slater in Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Social Context, J. Winkler and F. Zeitlin, eds., Princeton 1990, pl. 23 (fragment a).

Actors dressing and a boy holding a tragic mask. Fragment a (c) preserves a youth (from about the waist down) standing to left, holding a mask of the "kourimos parthenos," a cloak over his left shoulder. He also wears slippers. To the right, a woman (lower part) in a chiton and ependytes moves away; to the left, drapery. Fragment b (a) gives a bit of a herald or messenger similarly dressed, who also wears slippers. Fragment c (b) shows, at the far right, part of one laced shoe of someone standing to left; at the very top a small bit of relief contour that may be the bottom of a fold of drapery. Below the figures, spiral pattern (b and c). Preliminary sketch. Relief contour. Red (partly flaked): fillet of mask, as well as its strings (flaked) seen against the black background; cords (flaked) on either side of the face, which pass through openings in the top of the mask to facilitate carrying it and wearing it. White: face of mask.

There does not seem to be enough of the figures preserved on 623 to determine the exact subject. In her discussion of 623, Talcott (Hesperia 8, 1939, p. 271) remarked that the broad fillet on the mask is the type seen most often on maenads but even more often in scenes of victory or of mourning. If these are maenads, Webster (Hesperia 29, 1960, p. 255) suggests that the man is either Lykourgos or Pentheus. Pickard-Cambridge (Dramatic Festivals, pp. 180--181) takes the figure on fragment b to be an actor, the other two, chorus men. Hammond and Moon (AJA 82, 1978, p. 375) suggested that the representation may reflect the scene in Aischylos' Seven against Thebes (lines 863--870), where the chorus tells of Antigone and Ismene approaching to mourn the death of Eteokles.

Compare the Painter of Munich 2413 (ARV2 495, ---; Paralip. 380, ---; Addenda 250).