The Marsyas 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 pe ...

vase painter of the

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 ...

style active in

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...

between 370 and 340/330 BC. The Marsyas Painter is sometimes considered the best of the Attic red-figure painters of the late 4th-century

Kerch Style The Kerch style , also referred to as Kerch vases, is an archaeological term describing vases from the final phase of Attic red-figure pottery production. Their exact chronology remains problematic, but they are generally assumed to have been produ ...

. His conventional name is derived from the depiction of

Marsyas In Greek mythology, the satyr Marsyas (; grc-gre, Μαρσύας) is a central figure in two stories involving music: in one, he picked up the double oboe ('' aulos'') that had been abandoned by Athena and played it; in the other, he challenged ...

on a ''

pelike A pelike ( grc, πελίκη) is a one-piece ceramic container similar to an amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characterist ...

'', now on display at the Eremitage,

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. So far, 23 works have been attributed to him. These include mostly larger vessels, such as '' lebetes gamikoi'', ''pelikes'', ''

hydria 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 ...

i'' and '' lekanes''. Recently, ten

Panathenaic amphorae Panathenaic amphorae were the amphorae, large ceramic vessels, that contained the olive oil given as prizes in the Panathenaic Games. Some were and high. This oil came from the sacred grove of Athena at Akademia. The amphorae which held it ha ...

have been identified as his work, substantially improving our knowledge of his development. He painted scenes from the life of women and other aspects of everyday life, as well as mythological themes. His figures are harmonic in spite of their monumentality; his drawing style exhibits great delicacy and skill. He is a master of spatial perspective, using

foreshortening Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...

and reduction to great effect. Textiles and garments are depicted in great detail and appear voluminous. "His vases typically were elaborately decorated with gilding, raised relief, and unusual colors such as white, pink, blue, and green." His masterpiece the St. Petersburg ''lebes gamikos'', was found at

Kerch Kerch ( uk, Керч; russian: Керчь, ; Old East Slavic: Кърчевъ; Ancient Greek: , ''Pantikápaion''; Medieval Greek: ''Bosporos''; crh, , ; tr, Kerç) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of t ...

. It depicts the ''epaúlia'', the celebration dedicated to a newly married wife. A ''pelike'' with

Peleus In Greek mythology, Peleus (; Ancient Greek: Πηλεύς ''Pēleus'') was a hero, king of Phthia, husband of Thetis and the father of their son Achilles. This myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BC. Bi ...

and

Thetis Thetis (; grc-gre, Θέτις ), is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, or one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as ...

by him (now at the

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 ...

) shows one of the best nudes known from Greek vase painting; it may be viewed online.https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/r/red-figured_storage_jar.aspx Recently, some scholars equate him with the Eleusinian Painter.

Bibliography

* John D. Beazley. ''Attic Red Figure Vase Painters''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. * John Boardman. ''Rotfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Die klassische Zeit'', Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 1991 (Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, Vol 48), especially p. 199f. . *Stella Drougou. ''Marsyas-Maler'', in '' DNP'' 7 (1999), col. 956f.

References

External links

The Perseus Project - Works by the Marsyas Painter
at the St. Petersburg Hermitage 4th-century BC deaths Ancient Greek vase painters Anonymous artists of antiquity People from Attica Year of birth unknown {{Greece-artist-stub