The Syriskos Painter is an Athenian red-figure painter connected to the Syriskos Group, active ca. 470’s BCE and earlier,
who uses white-ground. The name (meaning “Little Syrian”) derives from the signature as potter (“epoiesen”) on an astragalos
(knucklebone-shaped vase) (Rome, Villa Giulia 866; BAPD 202749), showing Nike, Eros, and a lion. Shapes are the pelike, rhyton
in the shape of a ram’s head, kantharos in the shape of a woman’s head, amphora, krater, alabastron, psykter, hydria, and
lekythos. Subjects include Dionysos and followers, the symposion, warriors, athletes, and Theseus and the Minotaur. Some findspots
are the Athenian Acropolis, Tanagra, sites in Etruria (Vulci, Tarquinia, Cerveteri, Orvieto), southern Italy, Sicily, Naukratis,
and Ampurias (Spain).
Pseudo Panathenaic amphorae are unofficial imitations of Panathenaic amphorae that lack prize inscriptions. They are visually
almost identical to their official counterparts.
Taking its name from the Greek 'hydor,' meaning 'water,' the hydria is a water-pot for the fountain. It has a capacious oval
body, two horizontal handles, and one vertical handle. This type of vase was manufactured in bronze, in coarseware, and in
fineware. See also kalpis.
The Type C pyxis is a broad, squat version of the Type A and has deeply concave sides resting on a low ring foot. The flanged
lid is convex, often with a metal ring handle. The container is usually twice as wide as it is high. It was made as early
as the mid 5th c. and was popular from the last quarter of the 5th through the first half of the 4th c. BCE.
The Pasiades Painter is an Athenian red-figure painter active ca. 520-500 BCE, associated with the Group of the Paidikos Alabastra.
The name derives from the potter (“epoiesen”) who signs as Pasiades on several examples. The name Pasiades inscribed as painter
(“egrapsen”) on a white lekythos from the Athenian Agora (Athens, Agora Museum AP 422; BAPD 200898) is not considered to be
the same artist as the Pasiades Painter. Subjects include Penthesilea, women, and maenads. Known findspots are Attica, Delphi,
and Marion (Cyprus).
Relief is a decorative technique applied in both Athenian black-figure (see Black-figure) and red-figure (see Red-figure)
vase-painting in which clay is added to the surface of the vase. Relief can be used to show details of hair in the form of
black glaze dots, or for jewelry, objects, and animal or human figures. For larger figures, the relief decoration is produced
by pressing soft clay into a mold, similar to plastic vases (see Plastic), and then affixed to the still-moist surface using
a slip. Examples of relief decoration also include applique heads on handle junctions and full figural scenes. Sometimes the
relief may be accentuated with added colors such as white and gold (see Added Color).
The Altenburg Class denotes a group of Athenian black-figure painters active late 6th to early 5th c. BCE who mostly decorate
the oinochoe. The name derives from an oinochoe from Vulci (Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau-Museum 203A; BAPD 303211) showing
a seated winged female. Attributed to the class are the Painter of Munich 1760 and the Leagros Group. The Altenburg Painter,
a 6th c. BCE East Greek vase-painter of Fikellura style vessels, is not connected to this class. Scenes are Athena, Dionysos
and followers, and the Struggle for the Delphic Tripod. Aside from Vulci, findspots include other Etruscan sites.
The Oakeshott Painter is an Athenian black-figure painter of Little Master cups active in the second quarter of the 6th c.
BCE. The name derives from a cup, formerly in the Oakeshott collection (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum 1972.162; BAPD 350750), showing
animals. Shapes are band-cups and some lip-cups. One lip-cup (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (69.1052; BAPD 210) features figure
decoration on the interior. Subjects are Dionysian, and findspots include Samos, Etruria, and Cyrene.
The Eucharides Painter is an Athenian black-figure painter active ca. 500-470 BCE, who also painted in red-figure (see Eucharides
Painter [Red-figure]). The name derives from the inscription “Eucharides kalos” (“Eucharides is beautiful”) on a red-figure
stamnos (Copenhagen, National Museum 124 BAPD 202230) showing youths, women, and Eros. Shapes are the Panathenaic amphora,
hydria, pelike, and neck amphora. Subjects include music, horse races, warriors, Ajax and Achilles, and daily life. Findspots
are Athens (Acropolis, Agora, Kerameikos), Vulci, Nola, Cumae, Samos, Corinth, Kerch, Locris (Greece), and Al Mina.
Meaning 'carry on both sides,' the amphora is made in all fabrics. It has two vertical handles, a wide body, and a narrower
neck. Some have a broad foot, some have lids and their size can vary. Used for both liquids and solids, the three main types
are: 1) Transport amphora -- a large coarse-ware shape with a long body, small toe and narrow mouth that can be stoppered.
2) Neck amphora -- there are many varieities in fine ware, all sharing an offset neck. In addition, there are specially named
variants, e.g. Nikosthenic, Nolan, Panathenaic, and pointed. 3) Belly amphora -- the body and neck form a continuous curve.
The forms of handles, mouth, and feet differ among the various types of amphorae.
Archaic denotes Greek vases and other arts produced from ca. 600-480 BCE. It thus falls between the Orientalizing (ca. 700-600
BCE) and Classical (ca. 480-323 BCE) stylistic periods. The Archaic is sometimes divided into Early and Late (or “Ripe”) phases
according to region, and its date range is sometimes pushed back to ca. 700 BCE based on certain archaeological factors. The
term applies to the decorated vases of Athens, Corinth, Laconia, Boeotia, and other regions of ancient Greece. The main vase-painting
technique in Athens is black-figure (invented in Corinth late 7th c. BCE), followed by red-figure (invented in Athens ca.
530-520 BCE). Major Athenian vase-painters from the time include Lydos, Amasis Painter, Exekias, Euphronios, Brygos Painter,
and Berlin Painter.
Based on Egyptian alabaster prototypes, this small vase for perfume or oil has a broad, flat mouth, narrow neck, a thin, bag-shaped
body (sometimes with lugs), and is usually footless. Used for women's toilet and for cult, its contents were extracted with
a dipstick.
The amphora Type A has a flaring lip with concave sides, flat flanged handles, a foot with the upper part stepped, and a lower
echinus or torus. An early amphora shape that was popular in the black-figure technique, it was produced from the early 6th
c. BCE to about 440 BCE.
The amphora Type C has a rounded lip and torus or echinus foot and its handles vary in shape. It was potted from the second
quarter of the 6th c. BCE in the black-figure technique (especially by the Affecter's workshop), and from ca. 520 BCE to 470
BCE in the red-figure technique.
The amphora Type B has a flaring lip with straight or slightly concave sides, an echinus foot, and cylindrical handles. It
is one of the oldest shapes, produced from the late 7th c. BCE until about 425 BCE.
The handles of the bail amphora reach over the mouth. This type of amphora was used for storing and carrying wine, oil, and
other commoditities, for serving wine at the table, and as an ash urn for the dead.
An amphora where the neck joins the body at sharp angles instead of a smooth curve. The neck and the body are offset, meaning
that the curve and shape changes radically where the neck meets the shoulder.
The Yale University Art Gallery is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art
in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University.
The bell-krater is an innovation belonging to the red-figure technique. The body rises from a low disk-foot or sometimes a
modified disk-foot into the hint of a stem before expanding into the shape of an inverted bell with a mildly flaring mouth
with a torus lip. It has sturdy, horizontal, cylindrical handles that are located high up on the body opposite one another
and are slightly upturned.
Originiating in the Protogeometric period, the shape is one of the four types in use at the time. The name is derived from
the location of its handles, which are placed on the shoulder of the vessel. The shoulder-handled amphora seems to have been
developed in Athens at the beginning of the Protogeometric period but only became popular at the end, when it sometimes replaced
the belly-handled amphora in female burials.
Aryballos is the conventional name for an ovoid or ball-shaped oil pot with one or two handles. Used by athletes, it can be
footed or footless. Some aryballoi are potted in the shape of a head, animal, or bird.
Meaning 'wine-skin,' the term askos is conventionally (and erroneously) used for a small, flat vase, with narrow sloping spout
and handle arching over body. A variant exists in the form of a double-askos.
A belly amphora has a continuous, smooth curve from lip to foot. These amphorae have been classified as Types A, B, and C,
based on differences in the shape of lips, feet, and handles.
The small version of the amphora, the amphoriskos is based on the pointed variant of the neck-amphora or transport amphora.
Used for perfumed oil, some carry stamped designs.
The pointed aryballos follows the Middle Protocorinthian ovoid aryballos. In form it is taller and more top-heavy than its
precursor, and it first appears in Late Protocorinthian before being replaced by a new, rounded aryballos.
The calyx-krater is one of the largest Attic vases, and is reminiscent of a bell-shaped flower. It is named for its convex
lower body that has the configuration of the calyx of a flower, while the flaring upper body is suggestive of the bell-shaped
corolla. It has large, robust, upturned handles situated opposite one another on the cul.The calyx-krater appears in Attic
black-figure after the middle of the 6th c. BCE and is a popular shape until the end of red-figure.
The kylix is a large cup used for drinking wine. It has a relatively shallow bowl, two horizontal handles, and usually, but
not necessarily, a high stem above the foot. There are many types of kylix cups such as Komast, Band, Lip, Siana, Type A,
and Type B.
Primarily a red-figure shape, the Type B cup comes in shortly after the invention of the technique and was never popular in
black-figure. The bowl of the cup passes directly into the stem without interruption, the shape of the foot is a torus, and
there is usually a small chamfer on its top surface near the edge.
The column-krater has an articulated neck, whose wide mouth culminates in a broad rim with an overhaning lip. It takes its
name from the two pairs of columnar handles; these attach to handle plates at their top and to the krater shoulder at their
base.
Type A is the preferred cup shape of black-figure vase painters from about 530 BCE. The cup has a deep bowl without an offset
lip, a low flaring foot with a pronounced concave edge, and usually a fillet between the thick stem and the bowl.
From the verb 'to pour,' the chous is a broad-bodied jug with a low handle and trefoil mouth. It was used in the Anthesteria
festival and as a measure fixed for participants in drinking bouts (3.28 liters). Small choes were used for children's day,
when 3-year-olds received them.
The Type C cup has a rather shallow bowl and a plain or offset lip. The cup can be stemmed or stemless. The stem, when present,
is very short with a fillet at its base, and the foot is a thick torus. In the stemless versions, there is simply a fillet
between bowl and foot.
The Chalcidising Cup is a type of cup produced in Athens ca. 520 BCE that copies a shape made in southern Italy. Most feature
eyes on the exterior, some with figures (satyrs, Dionysos, warriors), and a gorgoneion in the interior. Their painters are
not named. Findspots are in Etruria, the Black Sea, and Attica.
Covered cups are kylikes that are a type of 'trick vase,' that is, they have fixed lids and contain elaborate internal elements
designed to deceive or amuse an unwary user. Covered cups were produced in Athens for roughly a century beginning around 540
BCE.
The term 'Little Master cup' is a translation of the German Kleinmeisterschale, alluding to the small scale of the decorative
elements. It has a high-stemmed foot and an offset concave lip. Examples are divided into two categories: lip-cups and band-cups.
Named for the scholar who first studied them, Droop cups (pronounced 'Drope') derive their shape from Little Master cups.
They have concave black lips marked off more clearly from the body than the Little Master cups, a tall-stemmed foot with a
plain fillet and band (sometimes grooved) at the top, and a black toe. There is a broad black band within the hollow foot,
in the bowl a reserved band low in the lip, and sometimes a reserved center disc.
Related to the Little Master cups, Kassel cups have a rather flat, band-cup shape and are generally small. Both the lip and
body are usually covered with simple patterned bands. Tongues are common at the lip, as are rays above the foot, and some
Kassel cups have silhouette figures in the handle zone.
A variation of the Little Master cup, this shape is painted black save for a handle zone that contains a decorated frieze,
unlike lip-cups which are largely plain save for the line that divides the lip and the body.
