The Rycroft Painter was an
Attic late
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 in the final decade of the sixth century BC. His real name is not known.
His work is closely connected with that of the contemporary
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 ...
technique, which was then in the process of replacing black-figure as the dominant style. His figures are often drawn as silhouettes. He often painted
Dionysiac scenes, but his best works are those focusing on depictions of posture and dignity. They were usually on
belly amphora
An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...
e of type A. He is close in style to the
Priam Painter and
Psiax
Psiax was an Attic vase painter of the transitional period between the black-figure and red-figure styles. His works date to ''circa'' 525 to 505 BC and comprise about 60 surviving vases, two of which bear his signature. Initially he was allocat ...
, but his talent is not inferior to that of the red-figure painters of the
Pioneer Group The Pioneer Group is a term used by scholars for a number of vase painters working in potters' quarter of Kerameikos in ancient Athens around the beginning of the 5th century BC, around the time of the emergence of red-figure vase painting, which s ...
active at the same time. He was, thus, one of the best vase painters of his style and period. A stylistically close contemporary was the
Painter of Tarquinia RC 6847.
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.
* 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. 124
External links
{{Authority control
Ancient Greek vase painters