Wall fragment from rather low on the vase. Max. dim. 0.093.

Triptolemos (segment of wheel and wing of throne) to right. Relief contour. Rim of wheel incised (compass-drawn). Dilute glaze: decoration at far right.

The two pairs of parallel lines at the far right are probably the divider between the long flight feathers of the wing and the shorter cover feathers. Cf. these contemporary examples: Munich 2383 by the Altamura Painter (ARV2 591, 23; Prange, Niobidenmaler, p. 163, cat. no. A 32, pl. 46) and New York, M.M.A. 41.162.98 by the Niobid Painter (ARV2 606, 80; Prange, p. 201, cat. no. N 99, pl. 47).

For the subject, see Schwarz, Triptolemos; M. Vos, CVA, Leyden 3 [The Netherlands 5], pp. 28--29; Hayashi, Triptolemosbildes; S. Matheson, "The Mission of Triptolemos and the Politics of Athens," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 35, 1995, pp. 345--372. Dugas ("La mission de Triptolème d'apres l'imagerie athénienne," Melanges Rome 62, 1950, pp. 9--31 [reprinted in Recueil Charles Dugas, Paris 1960, pp. 123--139]) recognized three categories of this theme in Greek art: (1) Demeter giving instructions to Triptolemos, often with Kore present; (2) Triptolemos about to set off on his mission and a libation being poured; (3) Triptolemos and the Eleusinian divinities following his return to Eleusis. The first is known only in black figure from about 540 on; the second, in Late Archaic and Early Classical red figure; the third, in Classical and later. 229 is probably the second.