’HΔI∑TO∑ ΔAIMΩN

Extract

A curious scene (fig. 1) decorates the Attic lekythos BS 423 in the Antikenmuseum at Basel. It was drawn not long before 480 B.C. by the Diosphos Painter, a fairly prolific craftsman who rarely devoted to his pictures as much care and imagination as he did in this case. Specializing in the decoration of small vases such as lekythoi, alabastra and small neck-amphorae he is among those conservative painters in Athens’ Kerameikos of the earlier fifth century who continued to use the old black-figure technique which most workshops had by then abandoned in favour of the new red-figure technique invented around 530 B.C. But while the bulk of his work is in black-figure, most of his better pieces are in so-called Six’s technique. This technique is named after the Dutch scholar Jan Six who first studied it and involves drawing the figures on an all-black background by combining incised lines and added colours (mostly white, but for more elaborate scenes also pink and red). Of East Greek origin it came to Athens at the same time red-figure was invented, probably introduced by Nikosthenes whose workshop appears to have been instrumental in its promotion during the last decades of the sixth century. To take full advantage of the possibilities offered by it was, however, left to the Sappho and above all to his colleague, the Diosphos Painter, who improved its decorative appeal by achieving a more balanced distribution between added colours and incised lines. Substantial parts of his pictures are left in incised outline, without any colour added, and he is particularly fond of compositions in which an all-black figure drawn in pure outline contrasts with one that is painted in added white.