Amasis Painter

Artist

Born: c. 555 b. c.e.; place unknown Died: c. 525 b. c.e.; place unknown Category: Art and architecture

Life “Amasis made me” is a signature found on many sixth century Greek vases. Eight vases so signed were also painted by the same artist, who is known to us today simply as the Amasis Painter (uh-MAY-suhs PAYN-tuhr). Today 132 vases are attributed to the Amasis Painter. This artist has a distinctive, sharp, flat, and meticulous black figure style. Black figure vase painters left the background of the vase “in reserve” (the natural color of the clay) and painted their subjects in black, with touches of white and red. Additionally, patterns in textiles and hair were incised through the paint to reveal the lighter color beneath. The Amasis Painter’s figures are portrayed in silhouette, are muscular but sleek, and represent gods, nobles, and heroes. These elegant scenes exhibit exquisite detailing in hair, dress, and decorative bands of petals and spirals. The Amasis Painter preferred to paint on amphorae, vases with two handles used for storage, and is known for creating designs harmonious with the vases’ shape.

Influence One of the Amasis Painter’s best known amphorae illustrates Dionysus and the Maenads on the front panel and Athena and Poseidon on its obverse. The Amasis Painter is known for the use of uncommon shapes, variations of standard scenes, and a refined, elegant style, often influencing other Attic painters, among them Exekias.

Further Reading

Boardman, John. Athenian Black Figure Vases. Reprint. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Isler-Kerenyi, Cornelia. Civilizing Violence: Satyrs on Sixth-Century Greek

Vases. Translated from the Italian by Eric Charles de Sena. Fribourg, Switzerland: Academic Press Fribourg, 2004.

Neer, Richard T. Style and Politics in Athenian Vase-Painting: The Craft of Democracy, ca. 530-460 B. C.E. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Von Bothmer, Dietrich. The Amasis Painter and His World: Vase Painting in Sixth-Century B. C. Athens. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1985.

Laura Rinaldi Dufresne

See also: Archaic Greece; Art and Architecture.