Sappho Painter was an

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

black-figure Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...

vase painter, active . His

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 ...

is a ''

kalpis The hydria ( el, ὑδρία; plural hydriai) is a form of Greek pottery from between the late Geometric period (7th century BC) and the Hellenistic period (3rd century BC). The etymology of the word hydria was first noted when it was stamped o ...

'' depicting the poet

Sappho Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...

, currently held by the

National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

(Inv. 142333). The hand of the Sappho Painter has been identified on 95 vessels, 70% of which are ''

lekythoi A lekythos (plural lekythoi) is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil (Greek λήκυθος), especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no po ...

''. His work has been also seen on tomb wall slabs and epinetra. Nearly half of his paintings are of the

white-ground White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the 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 made for ritua ...

style. He apparently avoided the then-predominant

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 vas ...

technique, but sometimes used

Six's technique Six's technique is the modern name for a technique used by Attic black-figure vase painters that involves laying on figures in white or red on a black surface and incising the details so that the black shows through. It was first described by the ...

whereby figures are laid on a black surface in white or red and details are incised so that the black shows through.Mommsen, Heide, "Sappho Painter", in: '' Brill's New Pauly'', Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider He was influenced and possibly trained by the

Edinburgh Painter The Edinburgh Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active around 500 BC. His speciality was white-ground '' lekythoi'' painted in the black-figure style. His real name is unknown. His conventional name is derived from his name vase in ...

, and shared a workshop with the Diosophos Painter.

References

External links

*
The Sappho Painter's name vase
at The Beazley Archive, University of Oxford {{Authority control Ancient Greek vase painters 6th-century BC Greek people 5th-century BC Greek people