Comedy in Paestan vase painting

Summary.   The 'phlyax' vases of magna graecia are now known to represent actors and staging of Middle Comedy. More than half of the comic vases dating from the third quarter of the fourth century BC were painted in Paestum by Asteas and his circle, who were influenced by the Sicilian Painter of Louvre K 240. This paper asks whether these painters worked from direct observation of the theatre; and if so, whether the vases are evidence for details of performance methods in Paestum or in Sicily, and at what period. The stage and skene , masks, costumes and comic acting style are considered, together with the link between Asteas and the Painter of Louvre K 240 and the significance of the disagreement of their evidence with that of the Manfria Group of Sicilian painters.