Cerameicus Painter

Olpe; upper zone: winged youth (Aristaios) between lions, lower zone: sirens, panther and lotus flowers; circa 600 BC; National Museum, Athens

The Cerameicus Painter (also Kerameikos Painter) was one of the first Attic black-figure vase painters. He was active around 600 BC.

The Cerameicus Painter can be placed stylistically between the Nessos Painter and the Gorgon Painter; he is probably chronologically closer to the latter. He was less productive than the Gorgon Painter and painted in a simple yet fluid style. His name is based on his name vase, found in the Kerameikos of Athens. That vase is an '’olpe’’ and can be considered exemplary of the vase painting of its time. The vase is subdivided into several zones of animal friezes. In the upper area, a single mythological figure is flanked by two lions, the latter a popular motif at the time.

Bibliography

John Beazley: Attic Black-figure Vase-painters. Oxford 1956, pp. 18-20.
John Boardman: Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Ein Handbuch, von Zabern, 4. edn, Mainz 1994 (Kulturgeschichte der Antiken Welt, Vol 1) ISBN 3-8053-0233-9, p. 18.

Source of translation

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cerameicus Painter.

Pottery of ancient Greece

Wine vessel shapes	Dinos Kotyle Krater Kyathos Psykter Rhyton Skyphos

Tableware	Eye-cup Kantharos Kylix Oenochoe Olpe Patera Pinakion

Perfume, oil, and wedding shapes	Alabastron Aryballos Askos Lebes Gamikos Lekythos Loutrophoros Lydion Pyxis Stirrup jar

Funerary shapes and cultic shapes	Kernos Lekythos Loutrophoros Phiale

Storage shapes	Amphora Hydria Kalathos Kalpis Lebes Pelike Pithos Stamnos

Utilitarian ceramics	Chuta Epinetron Luchnos Situla

Techniques	Bilingual pottery Black-figure Bucchero Red-figure Six's technique Three-phase firing White-ground

Styles	Ancient Greek vase-painting styles

Potters and painters	List of Greek potters List of Greek vase painters List of Little Masters Name vase

Museums noted for pottery	Athens Basel und Ludwig Berlin Bodrum British Edinburgh Getty Heraklion Louvre Thera Ure Vatican Walters

Writers and books	Adolf Furtwängler Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Dietrich von Bothmer Edmond Pottier John Beazley John Boardman Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae

Special topics in Greek pottery	Frying pans Kalos inscription Nikosthenic amphora Panathenaic amphora Symposium Typology