#The Berlin Painter

[uwmspeccoll]

The Berlin Painter

Of all the vase painters of ancient Athens, there is one who continues to captivate all those who witness their works, not only for their splendor and skill, but also for their mystery. The identity of the artist dubbed the Berlin Painter is something we may never know. Although over 200 pieces have been identified as being painted by this individual, none of them hold the name of the artist. This is highly unusual, since by the time of the early 5th century BCE, the period when the Berlin Painter’s vases are dated, both master potters and painters would commonly place their names on their favored works.

The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century B.C. edited by J. Michael Padgett, Curator of Ancient Art at the Princeton University Art Museum, and published by the Museum in 2017 on the occasion of exhibitions of the same name at the Princeton University Art Museum and the Toledo Museum of Art, is the definitive work on this ancient Greek artist, and includes an updated catalogue raisonné, With contributions by several leading scholars, the work seeks to rebuild the ancient city of Athens though the ceramic remains by artists such as the Berlin Painter.  

The highly decorated pottery of ancient Athens allows us to see the wide spread of influences this culture had on both the Mediterranean world and Central Europe. While beloved by those in the Hellenic world, others imported the pottery, as luxury items and elaborate symbols of wealth. The Etruscans from the Italian peninsula regularly furnished their tombs with kraters, wine mixing vessels, and the Celts of modern-day France and Germany would regularly feast using the Athenian pottery. Though lacking the fast-traveling methods available today, the broad distance where Athenian pottery can be found demonstrates that the cultures of the Mediterranean and Europe were closely connected.

View more Decorative Sunday posts.

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View more posts on Ancient Greece.

– LauraJean, Special Collections Classics Intern.

[jetleparti]

Prometheus: Unbound 505 / Oil, acrylic, ink, graphite, & wax pencil on canvas. via Jet Le Parti archive.

[lionofchaeronea]

The god Dionysos, holding a kantharos (two-handled drinking cup) in his right hand and a grapevine in his left. Side A of an Attic red-figure amphora attributed to the Berlin Painter and dated between 490 and 480 BCE. Found at Vulci; now in the Louvre.

[renabooksandart]

There are many depictions of the iconic fight about Troja in artworks though history. One of the best in my opinion is a unique vase of the Berlin painter (505 to 460 BC) you can find in the British Museum today. It was painted in the early classical Attic red-figure style (the one we automatically associate with greek vase paintings today). He depicted the epic climax of the Trojan War, the battle between Achilles and Hector. Both heroes are supported by their patrons, Athena and Apollo.

I tried to use every element you can find on this vase and include it in my fore-edge painting. So, this fore-edge painting is my attempt to change my favourite vase into book form.

Whenever I read the Iliad (honestly, it's so good!!! You have to give it a try and just open it at any page and read it out loud) I just love the thought, that humans have read the same words as I do for thousands of years.

[godsxandxgoddesses]

Kylix attr. Foundry Painter c. 490-480 terracotta D 30.5 cm

Berlin, Antikensammlung F2294

This image indicates metalworking (bronze) artisans creating things. Tools are along the walls as well as a shrine to Hephaestus and possibly Athena. Work shrines typically do not survive so this depiction of it in the metalworking shop is quite fascinating!

[didoofcarthage]

Red-figure amphora with Nike holding a kithara, attributed to the Berlin Painter

Greek (from Attica), Classical Period, 490-460 B.C.

terracotta

Saint Louis Art Museum

[the-cricket-chirps]

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Street, Berlin

1913

[weimar-arts]

Franz Radziwell, Selbstbildnis, 1925. 61 x 48 cm

[optimistic-yara]

Living in another century 🗝️📜

[maisonezekiel]

Greta via Dittrich & Schlechtriem

[ilovetocollectart]

Maki Na Kamura - Claim of Colours II, 2021. Oil, egg tempera on canvas. 110 x 170 cm 

[bublinko]

Berlin

My new comic painting with my original character

[the-painted-word]

Filosofar | 2023 | Oil on Paper. New year, new work! #abstractart #abstractpainting #abstraktekunst #smallartist #seascape #blue #spanish #quote #philosophy #thepaintedword #berlin #oilpainting #painting #painter (at Berlin, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnCEUXxIpLT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[pietroleopoldo]

But really not to be a 19th century romantic intellectual or something but it's a shame I have never felt Stendhal's syndrome i want to see something so beautiful that it makes me feel unwell

[aristoteliancomplacency]

Guys.

Y’all.

I…

I just. I just… i have discovered something. And I have laughed too much. I have laughed every time I have tried to explain it to someone. I cannot get through this.

Look. Okay.

There are two things you need to know, here.

First: There’s a style of Greek pottery that was popular during the Hellenic period, for which most of the surviving examples are from southern Italy. We call them ‘fish plates’ because, well, they’re plates, and they’re decorated with fish (and other marine life).

Like this one, currently in the Met:

Or this one, currently in the Cleveland Museum of Art:

They’re very cool. We’re not 100% sure what they were for, because most of the surviving ones were found as grave goods, but that’s a different post.

The second thing you need to know is that when we (Classics/archaeology/whatever as a discipline) have a collection of artefacts, like vases, sculptures, paintings, etc. and we do not know the name of the artist, but we’re pretty sure one artist made X, Y and Z artefacts, we come up with a name for that artist. There are a whole bunch of things that could be the source for the name, e.g. where we found most of their work (The Dipylon Master) or the potter with whom they worked (the Amasis Painter), a favourite theme (The Athena Painter), the Museum that ended up with the most famous thing they did (The Berlin Painter) or a notable aspect of their style. Like, say, The Eyebrow Painter.

Guess what kind of pottery the Eyebrow Painter made?

[mariamarachowska]

Begleiten Sie Maria Marachowska auf ihrer Reise zum Kunstatelier (23.5.2...