The Bryn Mawr Painter is the name given to an

Attic Greek Attic Greek is the Greek language, Greek dialect of the regions of ancient Greece, ancient region of Attica, including the ''polis'' of classical Athens, Athens. Often called Classical Greek, it was the prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige diale ...

red-figure Red-figure pottery () is a style of Pottery of ancient Greece, ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay. It developed in A ...

vase painter, active in the late Archaic period (c. 500 – 480 BCE). Attic Red-Figure Plate

Name artefact

The Bryn Mawr Painter was named by Sir

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 U ...

for a plate in the

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

Art and Artifact Collections (the Bryn Mawr Painter's ''namepiece''). Interior: A reclining male figure, draped from the waist down, leans against a doubled-over bolster. With the forefinger of his outstretched right hand, he holds a

kylix In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix ( , ; ; also spelled ''cylix''; : kylikes , ) is the most common type of cup in the period, usually associated with the drinking of wine. The cup often consists of a rounded base and a thin stem under ...

by the handle. A wreath, now so worn as to be all but invisible, dangles from his left hand. Hanging on the wall at his feet is a flute case of spotted animal skin. The figure is a participant in a Greek

symposium In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

(drinking party) and is shown playing the popular game of

kottabos Kottabos () was a game of skill played at Ancient Greek and Etruscan symposia (drinking parties), especially in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. It involved flinging wine-lees (sediment) at a target in the middle of the room. The winner would rece ...

, in which contestants attempted to hit various types of targets with wine dregs flung from the bottom of a kylix. A

kalos inscription A ''kalos'' inscription is a form of epigraph found on Attic vases and graffiti in antiquity, mainly during the Classical period from 550 to 450 BC. The word ''kalos'' (), meaning 'handsome' or 'beautiful', was often accompanied by the name of ...

reading "HO PAIS KALOS" ("the boy is beautiful") appears above the head and knee of the symposiast. Exterior: Reserved except for black glaze on the base ring and in a wide circular band in the center of the plate.

References

Sources

TriArte: Art & Artifacts Database – The Bryn Mawr Painter
*Joseph Clark Hoppin. ''A Handbook of Attic Red-Figured Vases''. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1919. p. 1 & 280, Fig. 61.

External links

by The Bryn Mawr Painter
Harvard Art Museums
Pottery by The Bryn Mawr Painter
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford {{authority control Ancient Greek vase painters Anonymous artists of antiquity People from Attica Year of birth unknown Archaeology of Greece