Amasis Painter

Heracles entering Olympus, olpe by the Amasis Painter, 550–530 BC.

The Amasis Painter (active around 550-510 BCE in Athens) was an ancient Greek vase painter of the black figure style. He owes his name to the fact that eight of the potter Amasis's manufactured marked work ("Amasis made me") are painted by the same painter, who we therefore called the Amasis painter. Today approximately 90 works are attributed to him.

In his early works, he is still tied at the old traditions with excessively long figures with small heads and angular movements. Contrary to his predecessors he soon began to fill his own work with life and tension. He loosened his figures up and enriched it at the same time created new composition forms. The trigger for this change was most likely around 540 BCE. when imported red figure painting appeared with their new representation possibilities, from which he was obviously inspired. He took over from the young red figure painters richer ornamentation and transferred it, as far as possible, to his black figure painting. Contrary to some younger contemporaries, like the Andokides Painter, whom he perhaps influenced, he held to the black figure style and did not change over. Nevertheless he seems to have occasionally attempted the red figure style.

The name Amasis, a hellenized form of the Egyptian A-ahmes, has resulted in much scholarly debate^[1]. There are two suggestions: that he was an Athenian named after the king Amasis or that he was an Egyptian or Naucratian^[2] immigrant to Athens. Those who support the former hypothesis argue that the potter and the painter are two different men. A further argument in support of his non-Athenian origin is the period he lived. Solon is said to set out to see the world and came to the court of Amasis in Egypt (Herodotus I,30-46) and Solon encouraged foreign craftsmen to settle in Athens by offering them Athenian citizenship^[3]

Selected works

• Athens, Acropolis Museum

Pinax 2510

• Berlin, Antikensammlung

Bauchamphora F 1688 • Amphora F 1691 • Fragment einer Bauchamphora F 1692

• Bloomington, Indiana University Art Museum

Amphora 71.82

• Boston, Museum of Arts

Halsamphora 18026 • Amphora 01.8026 • Amphora 01.8027 • Kylix 10.651

• London, The British Museum

Olpe B 52 • Olpe B 471

• Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum

Schale 79.AE.197

• München, Staatliche Antikensammlung

Bauchamphora 1383 • Amphora 8763

• New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bauchamphora 06.1021.69 • Amphora 56.171.10

• Paris, Musée National du Louvre

Schalen-Skyphos A 479 • Amphora F 25 • Amphora F 26 • Oinochoe F 30 • Amphora F 36 • Schale F 75

• Würzburg, Martin von Wagner Museum

Amphora L 265

References

• John Beazley. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
• Dietrich von Bothmer. The Amasis Painter and His World. Vase-Painting in Sixth-Century B.C. Athens. Malibu, California, J. Paul Getty Museum, 1985. ISBN 0-500-23443-4, ISBN 0-89236-086-0
• Papers on the Amasis Painter and His World. Colloquium sponsored by the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities and symposium sponsored by the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu, California, J. Paul Getty Museum 1987. ISBN 0-89236-093-3
• Semni Karouzou. The Amasis Painter. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.