The BMN Painter was an
Attic vase painter in the
black-figure style
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common bet ...
, active during the third quarter of the 6th century BC.
Initially, the BMN Painter worked for the potter
Lydos
Lydos (Greek: Λυδός, ''the Lydian'') was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style. Active between about 560 and 540 BC, he was the main representative of the '’’Lydos Group’’’. His signature, ό Λυδός, ho Lydos ("the ...
. Of the collaboration between the two, a
band cup
Band cups are a form of ancient Greek Attic Little-master cups.
The lip of a band cup is black and slightly concave. At the joint between vase body and foot, there is often a red ring. The external figural decoration is in the area of the handles ...
and a
belly amphora are known.
John Boardman sees the BMN Painter as both the earliest and the best vase painters to collaborate with the important potter
Nikosthenes
Nikosthenes was a potter of Greek black- and red-figure pottery in the time window 550–510 BC. He signed as the potter on over 120 black-figure vases, but only nine red-figure. Most of his vases were painted by someone else, called Painter ...
. The earliest works by them are a
Siana cup and several
Little-master cup
Little-master cups are a type of Attic black-figure cups, produced around the middle and third quarter of the sixth century BC. Their name is based on their fine small-format decoration.
Little-master cups are later in origin than Siana cups, bu ...
s, including a
lip cup Lip cups are a type of ancient Greek Attic Little-master cups.
Lip cups were produced from the middle of the sixth century BC in Athens. They resemble Gordion cups, but their lips or rims were more clearly distinguished from the rest of the body. ...
signed by Nikosthenes. The BMN Painter was the most significant representative of the
Bellerophontes Class. He probably painted the majority of works by that grouping, including the
name vase
In classical archaeology, a name vase is a specific "vase"In the study of ancient Greek pottery a "vase" is a general term covering all pottery shapes. whose painter's name is unknown but whose workshop style has been identified. The painter is co ...
, depicting
Bellerophontes
Bellerophon (; Ancient Greek: Βελλεροφῶν) or Bellerophontes (), born as Hipponous, was a hero of Greek mythology. He was "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of Heracles", and his ...
fighting the
chimaira
Chimaira () is an American heavy metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in August 1998, the group was a member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal scene. The band's name is derived from the word Chimera, a monstrous creature in Greek my ...
.
The abbreviation BMN that provides his covnetional name stands for "
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
" and "Nikosthenes" and refers to his name vase, inventory B 295 in that museum.
Bibliography
*
John Beazley
Sir John Davidson Beazley, (; 13 September 1885 – 6 May 1970) was a British classical archaeologist and art historian, known for his classification of Attic vases by artistic style. He was Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at the Un ...
: ''Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters'', Oxford 1956, p.
*
John Boardman: ''Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Ein Handbuch'', Mainz 1977, , p. 72
{{Authority control
Anonymous artists of antiquity
Ancient Greek vase painters
6th-century BC Greek people
Artists of ancient Attica