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A Vase-Painter in Dunedin?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. R. Green
Affiliation:
University of Sydney

Extract

The name vase of the Richmond Painter (datable c. 450–440 B.C.), formerly in the collection of Sir Francis Cook in Richmond, has been in the Otago Museum, Dunedin, since 1948. The traditional description has been (A) Nike (B) youth (Plate III, a–b). What does not seem to have been observed before, at least in print, is that the youth holds a short straight object in his right hand, in added red that has faded (Plate III, c). It is hard to see what this object can be but a brush, and if it is a brush, for what skill the Nike can be rewarding the youth other than vase-painting.

It would be pleasant if we could add this piece to the meagre list of representations of vase-painters, the more so since Beazley made it the painter's name vase. What is interesting too is the fact that the youth holds the brush in the normal way, in the fingers rather than the fist. The fist hold may be useful when writing with a stylus, but vase-painters usually show vase-painters with the finger hold—which again makes the four artisans on the Caputi Hydria a curious exception.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1978

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References

1 Dunedin E 48.68. Philippart, , Ant. Class. iv (1935) 225Google Scholar; ARV 1 665, 3; Trendall, , JHS lxxi (1951) 189Google Scholar no. 102 and pl. 41a; Anderson, , Handbook to the Greek Vases in the Otago Museum (Dunedin 1955) no. 70Google Scholar; ARV 2 1070, 3.

2 The most recent survey is Ziomecki, JuliuszLes représentations d'artisans sur les vases attiques (Wroclaw, Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk 1975)Google Scholar.

3 Green, , JHS lxxxi (1961) 73–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Noble, , The Technique of Painted Attic Pottery (New York 1966) 54–5Google Scholar; Ziomecki, , Archaeologia Polona xiv (1973) 115–19Google Scholar. The grip on the bell-krater Oxford 562, ARV 2 1064, 3, seems to be slightly modified because the painter is applying broad strokes with a heavier brush. The gem illustrated in Richter, 's Craft 79Google Scholar fig. 82 illustrates the fist grip. Is its authenticity certain?