Douris or Duris (, ''Douris'') was an ancient

Athenian Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

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 and potter active to 460 BCE.

Work

He began his career painting for the potters Kleophrades and

Euphronios Euphronios (; c. 535 – after 470 BC) was an ancient Greek vase painter and potter, active in Athens in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. As part of the so-called " Pioneer Group," (a modern name given to a group of vase painters who we ...

, before beginning a long collaboration with the potter Python. He signed 39 vases as a painter, also one as a potter and painter, and one vase as a potter only. Between 250 and 300 vases are ascribed to him. The majority of these vases are

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 ...

es, i.e. cups. His name seems to have been popular, since one finds it on other vases: it is reproduced on a cup by Onesimos. On the basis of these signatures, his

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 ...

s, and of the subsidiary decoration of the vases, the art historian

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 ...

divided his career into four principal periods:

Period 1

:(Very early and early) Is characterized by a full ornamentation of diverse border motifs. The preferred subjects are the

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 ...

, the komoi (processions of drunks), and warriors. The period is marked out by the use of the kalos-inscription 'Chairestratos'. Beazley suggests that at this time Douris could have worked side by side with Onesimos in the same workshop.

Period 2

:(Early middle) Douris' collaboration with Euphronios ends; from then on, he paints for the potter Python. Chairestratos remains the preferred kalos-inscription. Subsidiary decoration begins to recede, and the majority of the medallions do not have an edge. The favoured subjects are the scenes of youths and athletes. The hand of Douris is made clear from now on by the characteristic use of a kind of hook for the inner end of the collarbone. A characteristic piece of the period is a

psykter A (, 'cooler') is a type of Pottery of ancient Greece, Greek vase that is characterized by a bulbous body set on a high, narrow foot. It was used as a wine cooler, and specifically as part of the elite sympotic set in the ancient Greek symposiu ...

(wine cooler) decorated with drunken satyrs, reproducing in a grotesque manner the different stages of intoxication.

Period 3

:(Middle) Douris' style is here at its most idiosyncratic. The edges of the medallion are characterized by the alternation of an element of a meander and squares; palmettes decorate the handles of the cup. The kalos-inscriptions 'Hippodamas' become prevalent; Douris' signatures become scarcer. Douris returns to the scenes of the symposium, and to depictions of warriors and school-scenes. A characteristic piece of this period is the cup known as of the "pieta of Memnon":

Eos In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Eos (; Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek ''Ēṓs'', Attic Greek, Attic ''Héōs'', "dawn", or ; Aeolic Greek, Aeolic ''Aúōs'', Doric Greek, Doric ''Āṓs'') is the go ...

carries the body of her son

Memnon In Greek mythology, Memnon (; Ancient Greek: Μέμνων, ) was a king of Aethiopia and son of Tithonus and Eos. During the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troy's defense and killed Antilochus, Nestor (mythology), Nestor's son, during a fi ...

, killed by

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...

during the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

Period 4

:(Late) Douris returns to a full ornamentation. The borders sometimes retain the period-3 ('Hippodamas-type') border of alternating stopped meanders and saltire crosses, but gradually revert to the common type; the palmettes on the handles become complicated and of the motifs of the lotus appear in parallel. Douris' signatures disappear altogether and the kalos-inscriptions decrease in frequency; one finds 'Polyphrasmon' and 'HIketes'. The drawing quality degenerates in grace and force.

References

Sources

*John Beazley, "Attic Red-figure Vase-painters". Second edition, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1963. * John Boardman. ''Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period: A Handbook''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975. *Diana Buitron-Oliver. ''Douris. A Master-Painter of Athenian Red-Figure Vases.'' (in Kerameus, Vol. 9, 2005
online
*Edmond Pottier and Jane Ellen Harrison (translated by Bettina Kahnweiler). ''Douris and the Painters of Greek Vases''. London: J. Murray, 1908.
The Getty Museum - Biography of Douris

External links

The Getty Museum - Biography of DourisDouris kylix in Kimbell Art MuseumDouris collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douris 5th-century BC deaths Ancient Greek vase painters Ancient Athenians Year of birth unknown