The Eretria Painter was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

Attic

red-figure Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BCE and remained in use until the late 3rd century BCE. It replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure va ...

vase painter. He worked in the final quarter of the 5th century BC. The Eretria Painter is assumed to have been a contemporary of the Shuvalov Painter; he is considered one of the most interesting painters of his time. Many of his best works are painted on '' oinochoai'' and belly '' lekythoi''. His paintings often depict many figures, moving in groups across all available surfaces. He also painted such vessels as figure-shaped vases or head-shaped '' kantharoi''. Even as the vase shapes he painted on are unusual, his themes are conventional: athletes,

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...

s and

maenad In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...

s, and mythological scenes. There are also some careful studies of women. He also painted

white-ground White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the Greek vase painting, painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica, dated to about 500 BC. It was especially associated with ...

vases. A ''lekythos'' in New York shows a funeral scene, typical of white-ground painting:

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pele ...

is mourning Patroclus; the

nereid In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; grc, Νηρηΐδες, Nērēḯdes; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the ' Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sisters ...

s bring him new weapons. The Eretria Painter's drawing style influenced later artists, e.g. the

Meidias Painter The Meidias Painter was an Athens, Athenian red-figure Pottery of ancient Greece, vase painter in Ancient Greece, active in the last quarter of the 5th century BCE (fl. c. 420 to c. 400 BCE). He is named after the potter whose signature is found o ...

and his school.

Bibliography

* John D. Beazley. ''Attic Red Figure Vase Painters'' (2nd edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. *Adrienne Lezzi-Hafter. ''Der Eretria-Maler. Werke und Weggefährten'', Mainz, 1988 . * John Boardman. ''Rotfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Die klassische Zeit'', Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 1991 (Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, Vol 48), especially p. 102, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Eretria Painter 5th-century BC deaths Ancient Greek vase painters Anonymous artists of antiquity People from Attica Year of birth unknown