The official opening of the Parthenon
in 438 B.C. and the completion of its decorative sculptures in
the years following were a landmark in the history of Athenian
art. While it can hardly be asserted that vase-painting copied
these models in minute detail, it does at least show strong
influence from them and echoes their spirit.
One of the most important painters of the period was the
Achilles Painter, already at work in the middle years
of the century and until at least 430 B.C. or so. He had
a particular fondness for fastidious draughtsmanship of
lonely figures lost in the dark background of large pots.
His figures are notable for their gentleness, restrained emotion
and harmonious equilibrium: the scenes he portrayed have
an atmosphere of heroic idealism. The Phiale Painter,
a pupil of the Achilles Painter, took the same options as
his master, enriching them with greater narrativity. The
types of pot he decorated were the pelike, the
amphora, and also the giant bell-krater. For two of these kraters he
uses the white-ground
technique: the result is extremely attractive and at the
same time gives us a taste of what major painting must
have been like.
We know of at least three other vase-painters with
the same name as the famous mural-painter Polygnotus. The most
important of them was working in the third quarter of the
5th century B.C. In technique, this Polygnotus
follows in the footsteps of the Niobid Painter. In his
best work he strikes the heroic note and the scenes shown
are normally of riders or of battles with Amazons or
Centaurs.
During the third quarter of the 5th century B.C.,
certain vase-painters continued with old-fashioned
mannerisms and ornament, bringing subjects that had been
popular in the Archaic period back for an encore. There
is a striking variation in quality about their work. We
find fresh, animated subjects side by side with far too
many lifeless and technically uneven vogue pieces. |
But the most important of the vase-painters of this period was
the Eretria Painter. The types he decorated were: kylix; squat lekythos; moulded vessels; and epinetron. Some
of these breathe new life into the multi-figure, multi-level
compositions of the Eretria Painter's predecessors; others marry
red-figure technique with white-ground technique. From the
technical point of view, he is a painter who pays great attention
to detail. His style is exquisite but never pompous. The austere
calm of paintings of the Parthenon years has been replaced by
emotion. These were elements which were to influence the
up-and-coming 'Rich style'.
