Andokides Painter

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The Andokides Painter was a Greek vase painter who lived Athens towards the end of the 6th Century BCE., active from 535 to approximately 515. He remained anonymous because he did not sign his works, he is named therefore after the potter for whom he worked. His importance lies in the fact that he is believed to be the inventor and first user of the red figure style of vase painting.

[edit] Beginnings of his art

Hercules Amphora by the Andokides Painter, v. 520 BCE., Staatliche Antikensammlung of Munich

The Andokidès Painter began his activity in the technique at the time when the black figure style predominated, undoubtedly he was a pupil of Exekias, one of the masters of the art. The technical limits of this technique that required incising the detail onto a silhouette of a figure were reached around the late 6th century BCE,. After brief tests to apply white paint with the brush directly on a glazed black base, which made the added white wash fragile, as on an amphora preserved at museum of Louvre (inv.F203) which is ascribed to him, the Painter of Andokidès had the idea to reverse the process radically and to reserve in black glaze the background instead of the silhouettes of the figures in front. In this way, the red color of the clay became the absorbing ground on to which were painted in black the details of the characters with a fine brush that allowed a greater precision of detail than before.

It is around 530 BCE. that we first see evidence of this technique that will gradually spread to dominate the art. One can follow precisely the transitional period in particular since the Painter of Andokidès produced amphoras which presents on onse side the black figure style and on the other the red figure style, sometimes with the same scene, like tests to present a new technique step not yet sufficiently known to the customers. These vases are called bilingual. Thereafter, he will produce only vases in the red figure style.

He was not the only one to use these innovations, others, like Oltos or Epictetos also produce bilingual vases, but the majority of the specialists agree to date works of the Painter of Andokides to a few years before the production of the others, which makes it possible to think that he was the principal inventor of the technique of the red figure about 530 BCE., a novelty which will make the fortune of attic pottery for almost two centuries.

[edit] The style of the Andokides Painter

A score of vases with black figures, whose attribution is however disputed by some researchers, show that he had atteind a great control and virtuosity in the details which he will not find at once in the new technique which appears a little stiff at the beginning and one will still find some uses of the incision for example for chevelures. Thereafter, it will benefit a better from the red figure, exploiting the range of colors from red to brown dark. He announces the arrival of the great artists of the red figure style like Euphronios. His preferred topics are the mythological scenes representing of the gods and the heroes, in particular Hercules, his favorite character.