The term Class of Cabinet des Médailles 218, or Class of Cab. Méd. 218 or Class of C.M. 218 describes both a group of 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 ...

vase painters, and a type of vase they produced. They belong to the final third of the sixth century BC. The class painted variants of the Nikosthenic amphora. The vases' profiles are more flowing and less angular than the more common styles, making them more Greek in character. Two of the vases were produced by the potter

Pamphaios Pamphaios was an Attic potter active around the end of the 6th century BC. Pamphaios was the successor of Nikosthenes in that artist's workshop, and thus took over from one of the most influential and creative potters of antiquity. He probably too ...

and painted by

Oltos Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens from 525 BC to 500 BC. About 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, a cup in Berlin ( Antikensammlung F 2264) and a cup in Tarquinia (Museo Nazionale Tarquiniese RC 6848), are sign ...

. Like all Nikosthenic amphorae, works of the Class of Cabinet des Médailles 218 were found exclusively at

Caere : Caere (also Caisra and Cisra) is the Latin name given by the Romans to one of the larger cities of southern Etruria, the modern Cerveteri, approximately 50–60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome. To the Etruscans it was known as Cisra, t ...

. This indicates that following the tradition of

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 ...

, they produced exclusively for export to Etruria. The group's conventional name is derived from its

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 ...

, inventory 218 at the

Cabinet des Médailles The BnF Museum or Museum of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, formerly known as the Cabinet des Médailles, is a significant art and history museum in Paris. It displays collections of the ''Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques ...

of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.

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. 319-320 * John Beazley: ''Paralipomena. Additions to Attic black-figure vase-painters and to Attic red-figure vase-painters''. Oxford 1971. p. * John Boardman: ''Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Ein Handbuch'', Mainz 1977, , p. 122 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Class Of Cabinet Des Medailles 218 Ancient Greek vase painters