Black Figure-Pottery and Famous Painters: Lydos, Amasis, and Exekias
- sheilamilon22
- Sep 9, 2021
- 12 min read
Updated: Sep 12, 2021
The most notable Black-Figure artists were Lydos, Amasis, and Exekias, who represent the prime of Athenian black figure technique.
(Amphora signed by Exekias | Courtesy of Vatican Museums)
Quick Facts
Invented in Corinth around 700 B.C.
Successor of Geometric figures
Painting figures in black silhouette and incising linear details before firing
Style practiced in Athens
Style, decoration, and shape are critical foci of studies
Italian tombs are prime source of complete vases
Trailblazing work done by John Beazley, a British classical archaeologist
Beazley attributed work to over four hundred artists and groups and published works on the “principles of attribution, based on the combination of overall appraisal of style and composition, with comparative study of detail in the rendering of drapery or anatomy” (Boardman, 10)
Painters and potters were sometimes explicit and signed “...egrapsen” (painted this) or “...epoisen” (made this). On occasion, both signatures appeared on vases with two names or one name for both functions (painter and potter).
The most notable Black-Figure artists were Lydos, Amasis, and Exekias. These artists, whose works span from about 560 to 525 B.C. represent the prime of Athenian black figure technique.
Lydos (c. 560 to 540)
Existing studies differ on whether Lydos was an individual artist or a family workshop studio because his works blend in within larger groups of vases that are homogenous in style but widely differ in terms of quality. However, two surviving vessels are signed by “ho Lydos” or “the Lydian” (nickname) in the painter function and his name is known due to signatures on a dinos (mixing bowl or cauldron) and on an amphora. According to art historian Robert Folsom, 104 items are attributed to him with an additional 78 done in his manner.
Lydos painted the full repertory of large (his preference) and small vases within potters’ quarters, including trick vases, coolers, a funeral plaque series, column-kraters, and loutrophoroi (vase with elongated neck meant for carrying water for bridal baths). There is also high-quality miniaturist work within his group in the form of Little Master, eye, Siana, band, and Proto-A cups that demonstrate their collective talent.
Humans: “firm, solid, and robust with an air of grandeur despite their lively gestures” (Folsom, 122) -> they are portrayed in convincing poses and action scenes
Style: His human figures are distinguished by their clear outlines and correct proportions (Princeton Art Museum). Focus on movement, gestures, behavior, precision, and symmetry, but not with significant detail. More feminine than others.
Animals/Quirk: He devotes large vases to large animals, which resembles the Corinthian style. Lydos used to paint animals with “blob rosettes” that “carry much color and detail, like the whiskery hind quarters of some felines. They are stiff-legged, slim-bodiedd, rather wooden but decorative beasts” similar to Corinthian work (Boardman, 54)
Scenes and Subjects: range from mythology and everyday life
characteristic everyday subjects included athletes, warriors and erotic scenes
“deeds of Herakles, heavy hunched satyrs with incised dotted bodies, scenes from Troy [Trojan War], and horses” (Folsom, 122)
“hydria depicting Herakles and Geryon (Rome, Villa Giulia, M 430) and a Tyrrhenian amphora depicting the Judgement of Paris and Revellers at a Symposion (Florence, Mus. Archeol., 70995). Characteristic works of his second period, during which his individual painting style developed fully, are a kylix with the Deification of Herakles (Taranto, Mus. N., 20137), the signed lebes depicting a Gigantomachy, an amphora with the Pursuit of Troilos and the Sack of Troy (Berlin, Pergamonmus., 1685), a column krater with the Return of Hephaistos (New York, Met., 31.11.11.), a plate with the Arming of Achilles (Athens, N. Archaeol. Mus., 507), and an amphora-psykter depicting Dionysos and his Followers and Theseus and the Minotaur (London, BM, B148)” (Princeton Art Museum)
The following images are from the Getty Museum:
Side A.
Side B.
(Terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water) ca. 550 B.C.
"Obverse, Hephaistos on mule among satyrs and maenads Reverse, Dionysos among satyrs and maenads The symposium, conventionally interpreted as a drinking party, was a well-established feature of Greek—particularly Athenian— society. For over a century, representations on vases document that wine, women, and song were central ingredients. Even more worthy of emphasis, however, is the importance of the symposium as an institution that permitted citizens to gather, to transact business, and—as Plato's dialogue makes clear—to engage in serious discussion. An essential piece of equipment for the symposium was the vase in which the wine was diluted with water and from which it was served. In black-figure vase-painting before the last quarter of the sixth century B.C., the decoration of large, elaborate kraters tended to be mythological. (On red-figure vases, the symposium itself was often depicted.) This krater is of exceptional significance because it is one of the first on which wine, women, and song are presented, albeit in a mythological guise. The subject, which encompasses both sides of the vase, is the return of Hephaistos to Mount Olympos, the home of the gods. Hephaistos, the divine smith, was the son of Hera and Zeus. Because he was born lame, his mother cast him out of Olympos. In revenge, Hephaistos fashioned a throne that held Hera fast when she sat on it. only Hephaistos could release her. Therefore, he was given wine and escorted to Olympos by Dionysos, the god of wine, accompanied by his male and female followers, the satyrs and maenads" (Getty Museum).
Fragment of Terra cotta Plate
Terra Cotta Hydria
A close-up of Lydos' incisions.
The following images are from John Boardman's "Athenian Black Figure Vases".
The Amasis Painter (c. 560 to 525)
The Amasis Painter, named after the potter Amasis (‘Amasis’ is a Hellenised form of the common Egyptian name Ahmosis), is credited for contributing to the creation of 117 items covering a wide range of shapes from amphorae to lekythoi, oinochoai (wine jug), and cups throughout about 550 to 520 B.C. He preferred to pot and decorate belly amphorae with elaborate handles and feet.
The Amasis Painter’s early work was conventional and safe. Amasis was no doubt a potter. His scenes were crowded with figures and he incised only the most important details, but later, he decreased the number of figures in his scenes to about two or three at most and employed incision more. Groups are composed with careful symmetry and movement is never depicted as dull. His potting was “uniformly excellent, and like the painting, out of the ordinary run of production in Athens potters’ quarters” (Boardman, 54). Some of his features and style were not mainstream in comparison to other black figure potters and artists in Athens.
Style: pure formalist, employed manner, grace, delicate touch, and elaboration, less concern for depth, polished, simple, light, elegant, precise, fine sense of dramatic, and symmetrical
Faces and Bodies: His figure’s faces are strongly accentuated and the bodies are well-outlined. Characteristics of his work include: body features pertaining to “long, slim feet and hands with very long, tapering and gesticulating fingers” (Folsom, 123).
His figures have an elastic delicacy of limb and contour (mostly on smaller vases, but also on larger ones). He occasionally omitted the ground line for his figures on the stout of amphorae and cups.
“The fastidious, symmetrical arrangement of male and female figures on both vases is characteristic of the Amasis Painter. This symmetry is enhanced by the striking alternation of dressed and undressed bodies, which draws our attention to the women on both vases, who are conventionally described as maenads” (Henrichs, Getty Museum, 102)
Clothing: His contemporaries preferred to draw looser drapery but he favored “finely patterned drapery with delicate wavy lines and fringed hemlines [a speciality]” (Boardman, 55). He also enjoyed details on jewelry and dress.
Hair: He frequently used stippling for the hairy bodies of satyrs, head, hair, and beards, and many of the young men sport long locks by their ears.
Color: His use of color and area patterning is bold and original.
Scenes: The scenes often depicted in his works include those from mythology: mostly Dionysiac scenes with satyrs (male with ears and tails resembling those of a horse in addition to an elongated and exaggerated penal erection), maenads (female followers of Dionysus) or mortals, the Homeric legends, Herakles’ exploits, Perseus and the gorgon, and more. He was also fascinated by armor and especially by shield blazons, which he made much of, especially animal foreparts.
“He also uses architecture in mythological scenes and employs the Doric order in his representation of the stables of Poseidon on the cup in the Norbert Schimmel collection,31 painted in the third quarter of the century: a scene full of activity, surprise, and nervous energy is enacted in an architectural setting that makes use of Doric columns and capitals (or imaginative variations thereof)” (Pedley, Getty Museum, 70)
"Twelve percent of his one hundred sixty-five multi-figured scenes are mythological narratives proper, there is nothing incompetent or lackadaisical about them. He enjoys giving events an unexpected turn, as when Poseidon receives Herakles onto Olympos, or Hermes intervenes in the struggle for the tripod. He revels in presenting unusual scenes with extraordinary mimetic skill and panache" (Boardman, 55).
Quirk: A ~quirk~ of the Amasis Painter lies in his work on later vases. He employed his artistic choice to outline the flesh of female figures against orange-red backgrounds in place of painting it white on black, like most painters.
“Though his style evolved over this period of almost half a century, the precision and clarity with which he uses his medium remains consistent and conspicuous throughout. Let us begin with the rendering of his figures, for example, on an early amphora in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.2 The warrior putting on his greaves and the accompanying youths show an essential minimum of incised detail—for the line of the thigh, kneecaps, ankles, genitals, hair, eyes. No fussiness; perfect sureness. The same applies to the two robed figures. Their garments have a red stripe down the center, dot rosettes to either side, and an ornamental border at the neckline and the bottom. The effect may seem a little stiff, but, on the other hand, everything is immediately legible. To some degree, the impact of the forms is simply inherent in black-figure, in the placement of dark shapes against a light background. I would suggest, however, that the Amasis Painter used the technique with very deliberate purpose” (Mertens, Getty Museum, 168).
The following images are from the MET exhibit:
The following images are from the Getty Museum's "Papers on Amasis: Artist and Tradition":
Fig. 1. Neck-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side A: struggle for the tripod. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 01.8027, H.L. Pierce Fund.
Fig. 2. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side A: recovery of Helen. Great Britain, private collection (once in Riehen, Dr. Heinz Hoek collection)
Fig. 3. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side B, panel: recovery of Helen. Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, 1383. Photo C.H. Krüger-Moessner
Fig. 4. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side A: Kyknos. Paris, Musée du Louvre.
Fig. 5 Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side A, panel: satyrs vintaging. Würzburg, University, Martin von Wagner Museum, L 265. Photo K. Oehrlein.
Fig. 6. Olpe by the Amasis Painter. Front: hunter's return. London, British Museum, B 52.
Keynote: realism
Fig. 12. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side A: hunters' return and Dionysos. Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, 8763. Photo C.H. Krüger-Moessner. Fig. 13. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side B: Poseidon, hoplite, and woman. Paris, Musée du Louvre.
Fig. 14. Lekythos by the Amasis Painter. Front: wool working. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 31.11.10, Fletcher Fund, 1931
painter's fascination with the particulars of everyday existence itself
Fig. 8. Cup-skyphos by the Amasis Painter. Side B: love gifts. Paris, Musée du Louvre, A 479.
the Amasis Painter's cheerful "view from below" and vivid scenery
Fig. 9. Neck-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side B: arming of Achilles. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 01.8027.
Fig. 10. Lekythos by the Amasis Painter. Back: house of a bridegroom. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 56.11.1, gift of Walter C. Baker, 1956.
Fig. 11. Cup (type A) by the Amasis Painter. Side A: Doric columns and capitals in a stable setting. Kings Point, New York, Norbert Schimmel collection. Photo courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Fig. 11. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side B, panel: Dionysos flanked by satyrs and women. Formerly Berlin, Staatliche Museen, 3210 (lost).
Fig. 12. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side B: Dionysos flanked by men and women. Basel, Antikenmuseum.
Fig. 12. Panel-amphora by the Amasis Painter. Side B, panel: Dionysos flanked by men and women. Paris, Musée du Louvre, F 36.
The following scanned images are from John Boardman's "Athenian Black Figure Vases".
Here are some online resources to explore the Amasis Painter's work further:
Ancient Greek Art: Dionysus and the Maenads by the Amasis Painter:
Master Vases of Ancient Greece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trkk37MZ-gw
Recreation of Amasis work Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUbmrExNWSE
Exekias
Exekias was one of, if not the greatest master(s) of the black-figure technique. He signed twelve vessels that were followed by the word “epoisen,” indicating that he served as the potter, but on two, he signed “Exekias egraspe kapoise,” indicating that he served as both the potter and painter. The majority of his attributed items are amphorae. He signed fine lip cups and may have been responsible for the “early development of the Type A cup (Fig. 1) and Type A belly amphora - big vases over 60 cm high (Fig. 2) and may have invented the calyx crater since the earliest yet known was decorated by him. His work dates to the years 550 to 520 B.C.
The following scanned images are from John Boardman's book "Black Attic Vases".
Fig.1 Type A Cup signed by Exekias, Courtesy John Boardman
Fig. 2 Type A Cup signed by Exekias, Courtesy John Boardman
Exekias uplifted scenes of ordinary life to a level of heroicness and mythology by infusing his own interpretation of events. He was a master potter and holds importance due to his talent in potting, rather than painting, although he was talented in both.
Composition: “strikingly impressive, clean-cut, sophisticated, measured, and neatly integrated with care for balance and subtle relationships” (Folsom, 125)
Figures: compact and substantial, restrained gestures (contributes to portrayal of mood), liked to depict shields and armor
Animals: Early work included subsidiary zones of little animals
Clothing: lots of detail and rich ornamentation of cloaks, which were patiently incised
Hair: fine incision on hair and beards, focused on manes
Lettering: firm, neat, small, and clear
Floral: Neck amphorae in particular are provided with a variety of flowers and buds on their lowers walls and shoulders, Exekias preferred chains (with hoop links, not tendrils) on the interlaces of lotuses and palmettes (such as in the older manner), usually paints leaves separately (not close) (see Fig. 5) in alternating colors and finely draws them
Style: elegance, force, and distinct; minute detail; best at painting larger items; “quiet” scenes; close to style of Group E, early work was “somewhat conventional, bare, [and] rigid” (Folsom, 125); his later style became “more austere, measured, quiet, and unhurried” (Folsom, 125); not a miniaturist; planned EVERY detail, never skimped, “hallmark of his style is statuesque dignity due to size and proportion, but most of all: originality and verve” (Boardman, 57)
Quirk/Originality: Appeared in numerous forms, such as breaking Athenian convention and painting Dionysos across the entire empty interior of a cup (Fig. 4), incorporating a warm ‘coral red’ background in place of the typical terra cotta red, and most importantly, he decorated outside the eyes, few of his mythological scenes followed previous established patterns and he set new ones, Exekias didn’t paint his men as mere men and painted them with grandeur of gods in a classic manner, and lastly, he was the first recorded to set painted ships sailing around the rim of a dinos (Fig. 3)
Fig. 3
Fig. 4 Dionysus on interior
"Border decoration, and particularly large, beautifully constructed spirals with palmettes, frame and enliven the compositions. The central tableau is sometimes framed by areas of black, so that it appears suddenly out of the darkness,
uses the shape of the vessel, with its curving surface, as a terrain to which the lines and forms of the painting conform
attention is drawn to the central scene
All the other main lines of the composition either radiate around the thematic center or lead to it" -Boardman
More on originality:
(Boardman, 56)
Scenes: "quiet"
(Folsom, 125)
More images from Folsom's "Attic Black-Figured Pottery":
From the Getty Museum:
Amphora by Exekias. Side A, panel: detail showing the suicide of Ajax. Boulogne 558 (from E. Pfuhl, Malerei una Zeichnung der Griechen [Munich 1923] pi. 59.234).
Shield of Achilles by Exekias
"The original dating to ca 540-530BC is in the British Museum. It is one of the masterpieces of the Athenian Exekias who together with the Amasis Painter, pioneered the black-figure technique in the second half of the 6th century BC. Penthesileia, the Amazon Queen, brough her Amazon warriors to help the Trojans to defend their city, following the death of Hektor at the hands of Achilles. She too was killed by Achilles. Exekias chose to depict the moment when Achilles is on the point of killing Penthesileia. His face is masked and still protected by his helmet. On the reverse, Dionysos, god of wine and theatre, is shown with his son Oinopion."
The following are from the Getty Museum's "Paper's on the Amasis Painter" in the Chapter 08 detailing Exekias and Amasis's approaches to narratives:
Amphora by Exekias. Side B, panel: Dionysos and satyrs. Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Múzeum.
Neck-amphora by Exekias. Side A: Ajax carrying the body of Achilles. Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, 1470. Photo C.H. Kriiger-Moessner
Amphora by Exekias. Side A: Ajax lifting the body of Achilles. Philadelphia, University Museum.
Neck-amphora by Exekias. Side B, panel: Dcmophon and Akamas leading their horses. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, 1720.
Amphora by Exckias. Side B, panel: Kastor with his horse, Polydeukes, and Tyndareos and Leda. Rome, Musei Vatican!, 344.
Amphora fragment by Exekias. Side B, panel: archer grazing his horse. Philadelphia, University Museum.
Neck-amphora by Exekias. Side A: man and woman in a chariot. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.230.14, Rogers Fund, 1917.
His most famous work is an amphora depicting Achilles and Ajax tossing dice.
Vatican Museum
Exekias's 'Ajax and Achilles amphora' can be explored here via video analysis and tutorial: https://youtu.be/k2fdtepbkz8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9DZHy1g0SA
Exekias's 'Dionysus Kylix' can be explored here: https://youtu.be/tTF5ZY6aitg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUYXMXEri2o
Elements and Principles of Exekias's Amphora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zXcVzjv6M
Appendix for further study of other artists from Folsom:
Sources
Beazley ABV 150-158; Boardman ABFH 54-56; von Bothmer, D 'The Amasis Painter and his World' (New York and London 1984).
Belloli, Andrea P.A. Papers on the Amasis Painter and His World. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1987. (Amasis and Exekias)
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Amasis Painter". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Feb. 2018, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amasis-Painter.
Boardman, John. Athenian Black Figure Vases. Thames & Hudson, 1974. (All artists)
Folsom, Robert Slade. Attic Black-Figured Pottery. Noyes Press, 1975. (All artists)
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