Two kyathoi attributed to Psiax in the Dutuit Collection at the Petit Palais (Musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris)

Two vases in the Dutuit collection-a small black-figure hydria and a monumental black-figure amphora-from excavations carried out at Vulci for the Prince of Canino, and which had not previously been definitively attributed, have recently been entirely dismantled and restored. Studies carried out since the first attempt at attribution, together with the removal of added coats of paint that had modified the design, enable them now to be ascribed to the same artist, active in Athens in the latter third of the 6th century B.C. Psiax, trained by the Amasis painter, played an active role in the exploration of new techniques, notably red-figure technique, the invention of which is often attributed to the Andokides painter, and design on white ground. He decorated large and small vases, displaying a definite predilection for unusually shaped pieces. His relations with the workshop of the potter Andokides and the Andokides painter apparently played a major role in his career. The Dutuit vases shed light on two complementary facets of the artist's expertise. The hydria, with its outstanding form and decoration, is an exemplary specimen of his miniaturist style while the amphora, with its bold decoration, displays an equally talented freedom of expression in much larger format. Both pieces demonstrate the existence of close links between Psiax and the Andokides painter.