Exekias
| Exekias | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Exekias before 550 BC Probably Athens |
| Died | About 525 BC |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Known for | Vase painting |
| Notable work | High-quality vases for export and home consumption |
| Movement | Black-figure style, Group E |
Exekias (Ancient Greek: Ἐξηκίας, Exēkías) was an ancient Greek vase-painter and potter who was active in Athens between roughly 545 BC and 530 BC. Exekias worked mainly in the black-figure technique, which involved the painting of scenes using a clay slip that fired to black, with details created through incision. Exekias is regarded by art historians as an artistic visionary whose masterful use of incision and psychologically sensitive compositions mark him as one of the greatest of all Attic vase painters. The Andokides painter and the Lysippides Painter are thought to have been students of Exekias.
The works of Exekias are distinguished by their innovative compositions, precise draughtsmanship, and subtle psychological characterization, all of which transcend the inherent challenges of the black-figure technique. John Boardman, the eminent historian of Greek art, described Exekias' style as follows: "The hallmark of his style is a near statuesque dignity which brings vase painting for the first time close to claiming a place as a major art." He was an innovative painter and potter, who experimented with new shapes and devised unusual painting techniques, such as the use a coral-red slip, to enhance colour.
Fourteen signed works by Exekias have survived, while many more have been attributed to him based on the stylistic connoisseurship method developed by John Beazley. His signed pieces provide insight not only into the work of Exekias himself but also into the way ancient pottery workshops operated. Twelve of the fourteen vessels bearing his name refer to him not as their painter but as their potter, by adding the word epoíēsen (ἐποίησεν) to his name. This may be translated as "Exekias made [me]", in contrast to égrapsen (ἓγραψεν), which translates as "painted [me]" (literally: "drew [me]"). On two amphorae, Berlin 1720 and Vatican 344, both terms are used in the iambic trimeter inscription, Exēkías égrapse kapoíēsé me ("Exekias made and painted me"), indicating that in these cases Exekias was responsible for both the potting of the vase and its painted decoration. Fragments of a third amphora (Taranto 179196) also show the use of both terms, when the inscriptions are restored. This leads to speculation regarding the meaning of the epoíēsen signatures and why, in some instances, Exekias signed only as potter on vases that he clearly painted as well. It has been suggested that he chose to sign as painter only the works he was particularly proud of. According to a different approach, Exekias' epoíēsen signatures could be understood as functioning as a general workshop stamp, which would mean that Exekias may have simply been the master-potter who supervised the production of the vessel. Seven of the vessels signed "Exēkias epoíēsen," however, carry too little decoration to afford comparison. Only two of the remaining vases signed with epoíēsen can be attributed to the same hand as those signed "... égrapse kapoíēsé me"—that is, to the painter Exekias. Beazley attributed one of the vases with the potter-only signature to the so-called Group E, to which Exekias is closely related.
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