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 BCE, although there are specimens dating in the 2nd century BCE. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.
The Antimenes Painter was an Attic vase painter of the black-figure style, active between circa 530 and 510 BC.
The Kerch style, also referred to as Kerch vases, is an archaeological term describing vases from the final phase of Attic red-figure pottery production. Their exact chronology remains problematic, but they are generally assumed to have been produced roughly between 375 and 330/20 BC. The style is characterized by slender mannered figures and a polychromatism given to it by the use of white paint and gilding.
The Providence Painter is the conventional name given to a painter of the Attic red-figure style. He was active around 470 BC.
The Dinos Painter was an Attic red-figure vase painter who was active during the second half of the 5th century BC. The Dinos Painter stood in the tradition of the Kleophon Painter, but was less serious. One or few figures are depicted as the centre of an event; the frieze-like depiction of the course of the event seen in earlier styles is absent. His paintings initiate the "Rich Style" of the following generation; he already uses an increased amount of white to stress details. The technique of using white to depict Eros and furniture is an innovation of the Dinos Painter; a generation later it formed part of the standard repertoire.
The Meleager Painter was an ancient Greek vase painter of the Attic red-figure style. He was active in the first third of the 4th century BC. The Meleager Painter followed a tradition started by a group of slightly earlier artists, such as the Mikion Painter. He is probably the most important painter of his generation. He painted a wide variety of vase shapes, including even kylikes, a rarity among his contemporaries.
The Marsyas Painter was an ancient Greek vase painter of the red-figure style active in Attica between 370 and 340/330 BC. The Marsyas Painter is sometimes considered the best of the Attic red-figure painters of the late 4th-century Kerch Style.
The YZ Group is an assumed group of ancient Greek Attic vase painters of the red-figure style.
The Shuvalov Painter was an Attic vase painter of the red-figure style, active between 440 and 410 BC, i.e. in the High Classical period in Magna Graecia.
The Sisyphus Painter was an Apulian red-figure vase painter. His works are dated to the last two decades of the fifth century and the very early fourth century BC.
The Foundry Painter was an ancient Greek Attic red-figure vase painter of the Late Archaic period. His real name is unknown; the conventional name is derived from his most famous work, the Berlin Foundry Cup.
The Cerameicus Painter was one of the first Attic black-figure vase painters. He was active around 600 BC.
The Comast Group was a group of Attic vase painters in the black-figure style. The works of its members are dated to between 585 and 570/560 BC. The artists of the Komast Group are seen as the successors of the Gorgon Painter. Its most important representatives were the KX Painter and the slightly later KY Painter. They painted vases shapes that had been newly introduced to Athens or that had not previously been painted. Especially commonly painted by them were '’kothon’’ and lekanis. From Corinth, then still the centre of Greek vase painting, they adopted the Komast cup and the skyphos (known as kotyle. The KY Painter introduced the column krater. Also popular at the time was the kantharos. The group adopted the Corinthian habit of depicting komasts, after which the group is named. It provided the group’s most commonly painted motif. The komast scenes permit Attic artists for the first time to reach the artistic levels of middle-ranking Corinthian vases. While the older KX Painter still mostly painted animals and only the occasional komast scene, the komos became a standard motif for the KY painter and further inferior successors. It is not clear to what extent the painters of the group really cooperated. It is possible that they all worked in the same workshop. The group influenced later Attic vase painters, including the Heidelberg Painter. Works by the Komast Group were not only found in Attica, but appear to have been exported widely. Vases and fragments have been found at many sites, including Naukratis, Rhodes, Central Italy, Taras, and even Corinth.
The KX Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter. He was active between 585 and 570 BC. Besides the KY Painter, the KX Painter was the main representative of the Comast Group, which succeeded the Gorgon Painter. His conventional name was allocated by John Beazley. He is considered the better and chronologically somewhat earlier representative of the group. He was the first painter in Athens to occasionally depict komasts on his vases, a motif adopted from Corinthian vase painting. He mainly painted skyphoi, lekanes, kothones and Komast cups. In contrast to later representatives of the group, he still mostly painted animals, in a more careful and powerful style than the Gorgon Painter. Some mythological scenes by him are also known. Especially famous are his small-fornat mythical scenes placed within animal friezes. The KX Painter can be considered the first Attic painter to achieve a quality at par with that reached in Corinth, then the dominant centre of Greek vase painting. Imitations of his works are known from Boeotia.
The Anagyros Painter or Anagyrus Painter was a vase painter of the early Attic black-figure style, active in the first quarter of the 6th century BC. His works have only been found in inland Attica, mainly at Vari, but not in Athens itself. It is thus assumed that he was not active within the city and only produced for a very limited rural area. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, he did not paint lekanes but various large formats, such as amphorae, kantharoi, chalices, oinochoai and plates.
The Daybreak Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active in the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC. His real name is not known.
The Nikoxenos Painter was an Attic vase painter who worked in both the black-figure and red-figure styles. He was active in the end of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth centuries BC. His real name is not known.
The Arkesilas Painter was a Laconian vase painter active around 560 BC. He is considered one of the five great vase painters of Sparta.
Sicilian vase painting was a regional style of South Italian red-figure vase painting fabricated in Magna Graecia. It was one of five South Italian regional styles. The vase painting of Sicily was especially closely connected with the Lucanian and Paestan styles.
Campanian vase painting is one of the five regional styles of South Italian red-figure vase painting fabricated in Magna Graecia. It forms a close stylistic community with Apulian vase painting.
