Achilles Painter

Artist

Flourished: c. 460-c. 430 b. c.e.; Athens, Greece Category: Art and architecture

Life Named after the figure of Achilles on an amphora, or wine jar, in the Vatican Museums, the Achilles Painter (uh-KIHL-EEZ PAYN-tuhr) was one of the finest Athenian vase painters of the Classical period. More than 230 vases of various shapes, large and small, have been attributed to him. A pupil of the Berlin Painter, the Achilles Painter worked mainly in the red-figure and white-ground techniques but occasionally in black-figure for Panathenaic amphoras. His most beautiful vases are white-ground lekythoi, or oil jugs, decorated in delicate colors on a white background, often with a mistress and maid or two mourners at a tomb.

The drawing style of the Achilles Painter is exceptionally fine, with a beautiful quality of line. His figures tend to be serene and noble, similar to the contemporary sculptures of the Parthenon. The artist favored a variety of figure types, including deities, heroes, and mortals. Once, on a lekythos in Lugano, he represented an exquisite scene of two Muses on Mount Helicon.

Apparently, the Achilles Painter’s vases were prized commodities, for they have turned up not only in Athens and nearby Eretria, but as far afield as Etruria, Sicily, Egypt, and Turkey.

Influence The Achilles Painter set the standard of excellence for white-ground lekythoi. His pupils, such as the Phiale Painter, continued his style into the later fifth century b. c.e.

Further Reading

Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1963.

_. Paralipomena. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Boardman, John. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.

Kurtz, Donna Carol. Athenian White Lekythoi: Patterns and Painters. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1975.

Evelyn E. Bell

See also: Art and Architecture; Classical Greece.