Douris (vase painter)

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Peleus abducts Thetis, medallion of a cup of Phase IV, border with double meander, Cabinet des médailles, BNF (Inv. 539).
Peleus abducts Thetis, medallion of a cup of Phase IV, border with double meander, Cabinet des médailles, BNF (Inv. 539).

Douris (Ancient Greek: Δοῦρις / Doũris) was an ancient Athenian red-figure vase painter who flourished from ca. 500 to 460 BCE.

Contents

[edit] Work

He began his career working for the potters Kleophrades and Euphronios, before starting a long collaboration with Python. He signed 39 vases as a painter, also one as a potter and painter,[1] and one vase as a potter only[2]. Between 250 and 300 vases are ascribed to him.[3] The majority of these vases are kylixes, i.e. cups. His name seems to have been popular, since one finds it on other vases: it is reproduced on a cup by Onesimos.[4] On the basis of these signatures, his kalos inscriptions and of the subsidiary decoration of the vases, the art historian John Beazley delineated his career into four principle phases:

[edit] Phase 1

Is characterized by a full ornamentation of diverse border motifs. The preferred subjects are the banquet, the komoi (processions of drunks) and warriors. The favourite kalos name is Khærestratos. Beazley suggests that at this time Douris could have worked side by side with Onesimos in the same workshop. Compared to the latter, Douris prefers elegance in his figures to verisimilitude.
"Hook" collarbone characteristic of the style of Douris, detail of a medaillon of a cup, ca. 480 BCE, Louvre (G 121).
"Hook" collarbone characteristic of the style of Douris, detail of a medaillon of a cup, ca. 480 BCE, Louvre (G 121).

[edit] Phase 2

Collaboration with Euphronios ends; Douris works from now on for Python. Khærestratos remains the preferred kalos name, in parallel with Panaitios, which one also finds on works by Onesimos. Subsidiary decoration is less important; the majority of the medallions do not have an edge. The favoured subjects are the scenes of youths and athletes. The hand of Douris is made clear from now on by the use of a kind of hook for the inner end of the collarbone. Chef-d’oeuvre of the period is a psykter (wine cooler) decorated with drunken satyrs, reproducing in a grotesque manner the different stages of intoxication.[5]

[edit] Phase 3

Is the phase most characteristically Douris’s own, and his apogee. The edges of the medallion are characterized by the alternation of an element of a meander and squares; palmettes decorate the handles of the cup. The kalos name preferred is from now on Hippodamas; the signatures become scarcer. Douris returns to the scenes of the symposium, and he is also interested from there in studies of warriors and scenes of school life. Chef-d’oeuvre of this period is the cup known as of the "pieta of Memnon": Eos carries the body of her son Memnon, killed by Achilles during the Trojan War.[6]

[edit] Phase 4

Douris returns to a full ornamentation. The edges include from now on two elements of meander for a square; the palmettes on the handles become complicated and of the motifs of the lotus appear in parallel. The signatures disappear and the kalos names are less frequent. The drawing loses in grace and force.
Signature of Douris ΔΟΡΙΣ ΕΓΡΑΦΣΕΝ, detail of the cup called "pieta of Memnon", ca. 490-480 BCE, Louvre (G 115).
Signature of Douris ΔΟΡΙΣ ΕΓΡΑΦΣΕΝ, detail of the cup called "pieta of Memnon", ca. 490-480 BCE, Louvre (G 115).

[edit] References

  1. ^ A kantharos, Bruxelles A 718. Cf. Beazley, Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (2nd edition, 1963), 445, 256. Illustration on Perseus.
  2. ^ A globular aryballos, Athens 15375. ARV2, 447, 274.
  3. ^ Boardman suggests "some three hundred" (op. cit., p. 137); Dyfri Williams indicates "around 250", Greek Vases, British Museum Press, 1999 (1st edition 1985), p. 77.
  4. ^ Brunswick, College Bowdoin, 1930.1. ARV2, 328, 114. Illustration on Perseus.
  5. ^ London E 768. ARV2, 446, 262. Illustration on the British Museum website.
  6. ^ Louvre G 115. ARV2, 434, 74. Illustration on the Louvre website.

[edit] Sources

  • John Boardman. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.
  • Diana Buitron-Oliver. Douris. A Master-Painter of Athenian Red-Figure Vases. (in Kerameus, Vol. 9, 2005, online)
  • Edmond Pottier and Jane Ellen Harrison (translated by Bettina Kahnweiler). Douris and the Painters of Greek Vases. London: J. Murray, 1908.
  • The Getty Museum - Biography of Douris One of the most prolific vase-painters known, Douris worked as a vase-painter and occasionally as a potter in Athens in the early 400s B.C. He is known from almost forty signed vases, two of which he also potted. Altogether, almost three hundred vases have been attributed to him. Given that scholars estimate a less than 0.5% survival rate for Greek vases, Douris may have decorated about 78,000 vases in his career. Douris primarily decorated red-figure cups, but he also painted a few vessels of other forms and in other techniques, including white-ground. His scenes are about evenly divided between mythology and depictions of everyday life. He worked with a number of potters, including Kleophrades and Euphronios, but he seems to have had a regular collaboration with Python. Onesimos depicted a cup signed by Douris on one of his vases, and there is even an ancient forgery of Douris's signature. These unusual references attest to Douris's significant influence among contemporary vase-painters.

[edit] Source of translation

  • This page is a translation of the French wikipedia article fr:Douris (peintre), a laurel to its authors.

[edit] External links

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