The Theseus Painter was a decorator of vases in the

black-figure style Black-figure pottery painting (also known as black-figure style or black-figure ceramic; ) is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th a ...

, active in

Attica Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core cit ...

c. 515 to 475 BCE. Later published as He was the leading producer of larger Heron Class skyphoi.

Life and work

The true name of the Theseus Painter and the circumstances of his life have not been preserved. He is conventionally called the Theseus Painter because of the frequency with which he and his followers depicted various episodes of the ''Theseid'', the peregrinations of

Theseus Theseus (, ; ) was a divine hero in Greek mythology, famous for slaying the Minotaur. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes desc ...

. Stylistic evidence indicates that he was contemporaneous with and a "dominant influence" among the Sub-krokotos group, and was perhaps a student of

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 took ...

. He established his own workshop in Attica with the Athena Painter, and together they specialized in the production of skyphoi,

lekythoi A lekythos (; : lekythoi) is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip; the oinochoe is ...

, and oinochoai in the black-figure style. Although the more fashionable

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 ...

style had largely displaced the black-figure style at the turn of the sixth century, his work nonetheless enjoyed a certain measure of popularity, being found as far afield as

Thasos Thasos or Thassos (, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area. The island has an area of 380 km2 and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate regiona ...

to the north, Cyrene to the south,

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

to the east, and the far coast of Italy and Sicily to the west. He was a prolific artist, and stood out among practitioners of the obsolescent black-figure style by virtue of his skilful and inventive work.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Ancient Greek vase painters Anonymous artists of antiquity 6th-century BC Athenians 5th-century BC Athenians 5th-century BC Greek art Artists from Athens