Iliupersis Painter

Red-figure vase painter in Apulia, Magna Graecia (south Italy), active around 375-350 BC.

One of the pioneers of the middle phase of Apulian vase painting and the "Ornate Style" (also known as the "Rich Style"). Innovations of form and decoration during this phase included: the introduction of elaborate funerary scenes (naiskos vases); fluting (rippling) of lower sections of vessels; extra colours, particularly white and yellow, as well as red and brown; the motif of a female head rising from a flower between tendrils (usually on the necks of vessels); and moulded and painted medallions on the volutes of volute kraters, featuring figures or heads (mascaroons). The Iliupersis Painter has been credited by some scholars with the development of these innovations, which caught on rapidly and are found on an enormous number of south Italian vases from the mid 4th century BC. Around 1,200 surviving red-figured vessels from southern Italian, for example, depict a deceased person in a naiskos (ναΐσκος, diminutive of ναός, temple). See an Apulian red-figure volute krater in Milan on the Medusa page.

He is associated with a number of other contemporary vase painters, including the Painter of Athens 1714, who may have been employed in the same workshop.

Thought to have taught the Lycurgus Painter.

More than 100 paintings on a wide variety of vase types, including 14 volute kraters, have been attributed to the Iliupersis Painter. He painted mythological, bridal, funerary and dramatic scenes featuring several figures on two or more registers (levels) on the necks and bodies of vessels.

He was named by Arthur Dale Trendall (1909-1995), who called him "an artist of the highest importance ", after an Apulian red-figure volute krater depicting the Ilioupersis (Ἰλίου πέρσις, Iliou persis, Sack of Ilium, usually referred to as the Sack of Troy). Around 370-350 BC. From Basilicata (ancient Lucania, Λευκανία, Leukania), Italy. British Museum. Inv. No. 1867,0508.1333 (Vase F 160).
See: www.britishmuseum.org ...

Another well-known vase painting attributed to him is on a volute krater, 370-350 BC, with a depiction Persephone and Plouton in a quadriga, accompanied by Hekate and Hermes. British Museum. Inv. No. 1885,0314.1 (Vase F 277, not on display).
See: www.britishmuseum.org ...

Lycurgus Painter

Red-figure vase painter in Apulia, Magna Graecia (south Italy), active around 360-340 BC.

One of the leading painters of the second phase of the "Ornate Style" of south Italian red-figure vase painting.

Thought to have been a pupil of the Iliupersis Painter.

Paintings on several vases and fragments, mostly large vessels, have been attributed to the Lycurgus Painter. He painted mythological scenes featuring several figures, often in mannered poses and with dramatic facial expressions, and including illusions of perspective and spacial depth.

He was named by Arthur Dale Trendall after an Apulian red-figure calyx krater depicting King Lycurgus (Λυκοῦργος) of Thrace, driven mad by Dionysus, attacking his wife. Around 350-340 BC. From Ruvo di Puglia (Bari), southern Italy. British Museum. Inv. No. GR 1849.6-23.48 (Vase F 271).

Lydos

Λυδός (the Lydian), perhaps a nickname

Black-figure vase painter in Athens, active around 560-540 BC.

Leader of the "Lydos Group".

Thought to have been a migrant or son of migrants from Lydia in Anatolia (Asia Minor), who learned his trade in Athens.

Lydos signed two black-figure vases as "hό Λυδός" (ho Lydos, the Lydian):

Fragments of a dinos depicting a Gigantomachy, found on the Athens Acropolis. Surviving parts of figures and inscribed names include Aphrodite, Artemis, Dionysus, Hephaistos, Herakles, Hermes and a Giant. Two incised signatures on a fragment of the rim are thought to refer to Lydos as painter and potter: [hο δεινα εποιε]σεν [:] hο Λυδος : ε[γ]ραφ̣σ̣[εν] ([ho deina epoi]sen ho Lydos e[g]raphs[en]). National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Inv. No. Acr. 1.607.

Identification of paintings by Lydos has proved difficult since works possibly by him, although similar in style, vary considerably in quality, and due to the fact that he is thought to have been prolific and to have had a long career. Around 100 vessels of various shapes and sizes, including kraters, hydriai, amphorae, loutrophoroi, plates, cups (Siana cups, band cups), a "trick jug" and a psykter-amphora as well as funerary pinakes (plaques), have been securely attributed to Lydos. The attribution of another 74 works is less certain, and may have been made by painters in his workshop, the "Lydos Group", or imitators. Some of these are referred to as being in the "manner" or "style" of Lydos.

Attributed works include:

A large column krater painted right around the body with a lively but dignified depiction of the return of Hephaistos to Olympus (see Hephaistos), accompanied by Dionysus, in a procession with Maenads and Satyrs. Circa 550 BC. Height 56.4 cm, width 69.3 cm, diameter 58.6 cm. Metropolitan Museum, New York. Inv. No. 31.11.11.

See: metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253349

A double-walled psykter-amphora (wine cooler) showing Theseus and the Minotaur (see photo below) on one side, and Dionysus with satyrs and a maenad on the other. Height 32 cm. British Museum. Inv. No. GR 1848,0619.5 (Vase B 148).

An Attic black-figure krater from Thermi, Macedonia showing the Kalydonian Boar hunt (see photo below). Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum. Inv. No. Θε 546.

Fragments of a band cup from Italy, signed by Nikosthenes as potter, depicting wrestlers. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Inv. No. 1966.768.

A belly amphora from Vulci, with depictions of Menelaos recovering Helen to the left, and the death of Priam to the right. State Museums Berlin (SMB). Inv. No. F 1685.

An oinochoe signed by Kolchos as potter. On the body Herakles, supported by Athena, fights Ares over Kyknos, with Zeus intervening. From Vulci. Height 25.5 cm. State Museums Berlin (SMB). Inv. No. F 1732.

A plate with a large bearded Gorgoneion filling the centre. Diameter 24 cm. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich. Inv. No. 8760.

Lydos "the slave"

Λυδός δο̃λος

Black-figure vase painter in Athens, active around 550-500 BC.

Thought to be from Myrina, Aeolia, western Anatolia (Asia Minor, today Turkey).

The signature on an inscribed Attic black-figure kyathos, dated to around 550-500 BC, is unclear, but has been read as Λυδὸς ἔγραφσεν δολοσ ον μυδεασσ ευγε[...]ο (Lydos painted it, slave from Myrina), and is thought not to be by the better-known Lydos above. The painting of an assembly of eleven Olympian gods (some names inscribed) with Herakles is in a different style ("late weak style") to other paintings attributed to Lydos. From Tomb 145, Osteria necropolis, Vulci, Etruria (Lazio, Italy). National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome. Inv. No. 84,466.

Marsyas Painter

Vase painter in Attica, around 370-330 BC.

The Marsyas Painter is considered the best vase painter of the 4th century BC, particularly for the quality of his drawing and three-quarter views of figures. He is a key artist of the Kerch style, the last phase of Attic red-figure painting around 375-320 BC BC, named after Kerch (ancient Pantikapaion, Παντικάπαιον) on the east coast of the Crimea, where many examples of Kerch ware have been found. Around 12 vessels painted by him have survived, some fragmentary, and recently ten Panathenaic amphorae from Eretria, Euboea have also attributed to him by Greek archaeologist Panos D. Valavanis (Πάνος Δ. Βαλαβάνης).

He was named by John Beazley, following the Swiss archaeologist Karl Schefold (1905-1999) who first collected his works, after a pelike with a depiction of the music contest between Apollo and Marsyas, excavated at Kerch. On Side B is a scene of women bathing and dressing. Hermitage State Museum, Saint Petersburg. Inv. No. St 1795.

Beazley Archive Database, Vase No. 230421

The style of the Marsyas Painter is so similar to that of the Eleusinian Painter, that some scholars believe that the latter was a late stage of the former, rather than a separate person.

Peleus seizing Thetis by the Marsyas Painter, on an Attic red-figure pelike, about 350-340 BC. Found in Kameiros, Rhodes. On Side B: beardless Dionysus seated between a Satyr and a Maenad. British Museum. Inv. No. 1862,0530.1 (Vase E 424).

Another depiction of Peleus capturing Thetis on an Attic red-figure pelike, painted by The Painter of Athens 1472, is so similar in composition that it is thought the two artists worked together in the same wokshop. Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, Inv. No. 1993.49.

Micali Painter

Etruscan vase painter working at Vulci, Etruria, late 6th century BC.

An Etruscan black-figure neck amphora ("Round dance") by the Micali Painter, about 525-500 BC. Altes Museum, Berlin. Inv. No. V.I. 3226.

An Attic red-figure oinochoe (οἰνοχόη,
wine jug) in the form of a female head.
Around 525-475 BC. Inscribed in white
paint on the handle (not visible in photo)
is the signature of the potter Midas:

ο Μιδας εποιεσεν

Midas made me

From an inhumation burial of a woman,
Macri Langoni Tomb 30 (84). 475-450 BC.
Found in 1930 during excavations in the
ancient cemetery at Macri Langoni, near
Kamiros, western Rhodes. Height 26 cm,
diameter 6.5 cm.

Mykonos Painter

Vase painter in Athens, mid 5th century BC.

Perseus holding the head of Medusa by the Mykonos Painter, on an Attic red-figure calyx-krater, made in Athens about 460-450 BC. Museo Civico, Castello Ursino, Catania, Sicily. Inv. No. 4399. From the Biscari Collection.

Visit the My Favourite Planet Group on Facebook.