The Polos Painter was a vase painter of the Attic

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 ...

style. His works date to c. 575 to 565 BC. The Polos Painter is considered to have a distinctive personal style, while only being of mediocre artistic talent. Stylistically, he resembles the earlier Ragusa Group, which was strongly influenced by Corinthian vase painting. He was very productive. Most of his vases were decorated with “degenerate animal friezes” ( John Boardman). His conventional name is based on the cross-hatched ''

polos The ''polos'' crown (plural ''poloi''; el, πόλος) is a high cylindrical crown worn by mythological goddesses of the Ancient Near East and Anatolia and adopted by the ancient Greeks for imaging the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele and Her ...

'' crowns worn by the women, animals and

sirens Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisco ...

he painted. More than 100 known vases and fragments are ascribed to him. His works were widely spread across the Greek world, presumably among less discerning customers; they have been found from

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

and

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 S ...

via Southern Italy to

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, the

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. He decorated all vase shapes then current; but preferred plates and '' lekanes''.

Works (selection)

*Paris,

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

:CA 3059 ''Lekanis'' :Cp 10501 Fragment of a belly amphora *Reading,

Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology is a museum of ancient Mediterranean archaeology, primarily that of ancient Greek civilisation but with smaller collections of Egyptian, Etruscan and Roman items. It contains one of the most important collect ...

:14.9.82 Fragment einer of a painted terracotta :14.9.83 Fragment of a ''lekanis'' *San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums :1925.364 ''Skyphos''

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. 43-49. 708. * A. Arribas; G. Trías: ''Un vaso del Pintor del Polos de Ampurias'', in: Archivo español de arqueología 34 (1961) p. 168-177. * John D. Beazley: ''Paralipomena. Additions to Attic black-figure vase-painters and to Attic red-figure vase-painters'', Oxford 1971, p. 20-22. * Maria Grazia Costagli Marzi: ''Il cratere del Pittore del Polos nel Museo Archeologico di Firenze'', in: Archaeologica. Scritti in onore di Aldo Neppi Modona, Florenz 1975, p. 173-181. * John Boardman: ''Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Ein Handbuch'', von Zabern, Mainz 1977( Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, Vol 1) , p. 22.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polos Painter Ancient Greek vase painters