Andokides (potter)

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Side A (red-figure) of an Attic bilingual amphora, 520-510 BC, painted by Andokides. Athena Herakles Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2301 A full.jpg
Side A (red-figure) of an Attic bilingual amphora, 520–510 BC, painted by Andokides.

Andokides ( /ˌændoʊˈsaɪdiːz/ ; [1] Greek : Ἀνδοκίδης) was a famous potter of Ancient Greece. The painter of his pots was an anonymous artist, the Andokides painter, who is recognized as the creator of the red-figure style, beginning around 530 BC. His work is compared with Exekias, who was said to have created the most detailed and best examples of black-figure pottery. Exekias is said to be the teacher of Andokides. Although the work of Andokides and his painter is considered inferior to that of Exekias, the invention of red figure was an important innovation.

Greek language language spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Southern Albania

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

Pottery craft of making objects from clay

Pottery is the process of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired to give them a hard, durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. The definition of pottery used by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products." A different definition, used within the field of ceramics, is "everything which is not porcelain". In archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, "pottery" often means vessels only, and figures etc. of the same material are called "terracottas". Clay as a part of the materials used is required by some definitions of pottery, but this is dubious.

Ancient Greece Civilization belonging to an early period of Greek history

Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Roughly three centuries after the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, Greek urban poleis began to form in the 8th century BC, ushering in the Archaic period and colonization of the Mediterranean Basin. This was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedon, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. The Hellenistic period came to an end with the conquests and annexations of the eastern Mediterranean world by the Roman Republic, which established the Roman province of Macedonia in Roman Greece, and later the province of Achaea during the Roman Empire.

The most renowned work of Andokides is the amphora depicting the god Dionysus and two of his maenads.

Amphora Type of storage container

An amphora is a type of container of a characteristic shape and size, descending from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products, both liquid and dry, but mostly for wine. They are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. Versions of the amphorae were one of many shapes used in Ancient Greek vase painting.

Dionysus Ancient Greek god of winemaking and wine

Dionysus is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. His worship became firmly established in the seventh century BC. He may have been worshipped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks; traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios or Zalmoxis. He is a god of epiphany, "the god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, becoming increasingly important over time, and included in some lists of the twelve Olympians, as the last of their number, and the only god born from a mortal mother. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Andocides". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed., Columbia University Press, 2012.

Related Research Articles

Black-figure pottery Style of painting on ancient Greek vases

Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.

Exekias Ancient Athenian vase painter

Exekias was an ancient Greek vase-painter and potter who was active in Athens between roughly 545 BC and 530 BC. Exekias worked mainly in the black-figure technique, which involved the painting of scenes using a clay slip that fired to black, with details created through incision. Exekias is regarded by art historians as an artistic visionary whose masterful use of incision and psychologically sensitive compositions mark him as one of the greatest of all Attic vase painters. The Andokides painter and the Lysippides Painter are thought to have been students of Exekias.

Euphronios Ancient Greek artist

Euphronios 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,", Euphronios was one of the most important artists of the red-figure technique. His works place him at the transition from Late Archaic to Early Classical art, and he is one of the first known artists in history to have signed his work.

Nikosthenes Ancient Greek potter and entrepreneur

Nikosthenes was a potter of Greek black- and red-figure pottery in the time window 550-510 BC. He signed as the potter on over 120 black-figure vases, but only 9 red-figure. Most of his vases were painted by someone else, called Painter N. Beazley considers the painting "slovenly and dissolute;" that is, not of high quality. In addition, he is thought to have worked with the painters Anakles, Oltos, Lydos and Epiktetos. Six's technique is believed to have been invented in Nikosthenes' workshop, possibly by Nikosthenes himself, around 530 BC. He is considered transitional between black-figure and red-figure pottery.

Epiktetos ancient Greek vase painter

Epiktetos was an Attic vase painter in the early red-figure style. Besides Oltos, he was the most important painter of the Pioneer Group. He was active between 520 BC and 490 BC. His name translates as "newly acquired" which is most probably a reference to his slave status.

Psiax ancient Greek painter

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 allocated the name Menon Painter by John Beazley. Only later was it realised that the artist was identical with the painters signing as Psiax.

Nessos Painter Ancient Greek black-figure vase painter

The Nessos Painter, also known as Netos or Nettos Painter, was a pioneer of Attic black-figure vase painting. He is considered to be the first Athenian to adopt the Corinthian style who went on to develop his own style and introduced innovations. The Nessos Painter is often known to be one of the original painters of black-figure. He only worked in this style, which is shown on his name vase in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Most of the known Nessos Painter ceramics were found in funerary settings such as cemeteries and mortuaries.

Amasis Painter Greek vase painter

The Amasis Painter was an ancient Greek vase painter who worked in the black-figure technique. He owes his name to the signature of the potter Amasis, who signed 12 works painted by the same hand. At the time of the exhibition, "The Amasis Painter and His World" (1985), 132 vases had been attributed to this artist.

Andokides painter Ancient Athenian vase painter

The Andokides Painter was an ancient Athenian vase painter, active from approximately 530 to 515 B.C. His work is unsigned and his true name unknown. He was identified as a unique artistic personality through stylistic traits found in common among several paintings. This corpus was then attributed by John D. Beazley to the Andokides Painter, a name derived from the potter Andokides, whose signature appears on several of the vases bearing the painter's work. He is often credited with being the originator of the red-figure vase painting technique. To be sure, he is certainly one of the earliest painters to work in the style. In total, fourteen amphorae and two cups are attributed to his hand. Six of the amphorae are "bilingual", meaning they display both red-figure and black-figure scenes.

Staatliche Antikensammlungen Art museum in Munich, Germany

The Staatliche Antikensammlungen is a museum in Munich's Kunstareal holding Bavaria's collections of antiquities from Greece, Etruria and Rome, though the sculpture collection is located in the opposite Glyptothek and works created in Bavaria are on display in a separate museum. Ancient Egypt also has its own museum.

The Lysippides Painter worked in Athens in the second half of the 6th century BC. He was a black-figure painter of a classic style. He most probably trained with Ezekias in his workshop until moving to the Andokides workshop where he mainly painted large, expensive vases and did some work on bilingual vases with Andokides P being the red-figure painter. He was named, after much debate ensuring he was not the Andokides Painter using red-figure, after a Kalos found on one of his vases.

Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter (Munich 2301) ancient attic-greek type A belly amphora at the Staatlichen Antikensammlung in Munich

The Belly Amphora in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen at Munich is one of the most famous works by the Andokides Painter. The vase measures 53.5 cm high and 22.5 cm in diameter. It dates to between 520 and 510 BC and was discovered at Vulci. It was acquired by Martin von Wagner, an agent of Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Group E (vase painting) group of Attic vase painters of the black-figure style

Group E was a group of Attic vase painters of the black-figure style. They were active between 560 and 540 BC.

Eye-cup

Eye-cup is the term describing a specific cup type in ancient Greek pottery, distinguished by pairs of eyes painted on the external surface. Classified as kylikes in terms of shape, they were especially widespread in Athens and Chalkis in the second half of the sixth century BC. The bowl of the eye-cup rests on a short squat foot; both sides are dominated by large painted pairs of eyes under arched eyebrows. The eyeballs are painted in silhouette style, later often filled with white paint or painted white on black. Some eyes are “female”, i.e. almond-shaped and without tear-ducts. Often, a stylized nose is placed centrally between the eyes. While used as a drinking vessel, due to the necessary inclination of the vessel, the cup with its painted eyes, the handles looking like ears and the base of the foot like a mouth, would have resembled a mask. Many of the vases also bear dionysiac imagery. The eyes are assumed to have served an apotropaic (evil-averting) function.

Bilingual vase painting ancient Greek vase painting in both the black-figure and the red-figure techniques

Bilingual vase painting is a special form of ancient Greek vase painting. The term, derived from linguistics, is essentially a metaphorical one; it describes vases that are painted both in the black-figure and in the red-figure techniques. It also describes the transitional period when black-figure was being gradually replaced in dominance by red-figure, basically the last quarter of the 6th and the very beginning of the 5th century BC. Their appearance may be due to the initial uncertainty of the market for the new red-figure style, although that style subsequently became dominant rather fast.

Lysippides Painter Ancient Greek vase painter

The Lysippides Painter was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style. He was active around 530 to 510 BC. His real name is not known.

Mastos Painter

The Mastos Painter was a painter of ancient Greek vases. He is named for a black-figure mastos used by the art historian John Boardman to illustrate the type, which is shaped like a woman's breast.

Bilingual kylix by the Andokides painter

The bilingual eye cup by the Andokides painter in the Museo Archeologico Regionale, Palermo, is a prime example of the transition from black-figure vase painting to the red-figure style in the late 6th century to early 5th century that commonly resulted in "bilingual" vases, using both styles. The Andokides painter created the red-figure style of pottery as we know it today during his working years from 530-515 BC. Starting around 530 BC the Andokides painter produced red-figure amphorae and a bilingual kylix. Fewer than 20 vases survive by the Andokides painter but they span 30-40 years of his career, allowing historians to trace the development of his painting styles. One of the earliest mentions of the Andokides painter was on a black-figure hydria by Timagoras around 550 BC, when the Andokides painter must have been an apprentice.

Suicide of Ajax Vase

The Suicide of Ajax Vase depicting the suicide of Ajax a "neck amphora" in shape, and painted in the black-figure style. It is now in the Château-musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer in France. The painter was Exekias who made this work in Athens at the end of the Archaic Period, around 530 BC. The scene shows Ajax preparing for his suicide, a unique scene in Ancient Greek art. Black-figure is a technique for pottery decoration where the painter would paint the figures in black paint and leave the background as unpainted clay. Ajax appears in the middle, bent over his sword which he is placing in the ground. There is a tree to one side of him and his suit of armor to the other side. There is a line of geometric decoration at the top of the scene and at the bottom of the amphora.

References



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