Sophilus

Signature of Sophilos as a painter: Sophilos me egrafsen ("Sophilos painted me.")

Sophilos ( ancient Greek Σώφιλος ) was an Attic potter and vase painter of the black-figure style who lived around 590-570 BC. Was active.

Sophilus is the oldest Attic vase painter currently known by name. Two signed fragments of wine kettles ( dinoi ) from him have been preserved in Athens , which show that he painted them and also made the vessels himself. A total of 37 vases, mainly amphorae , dinosaurs and craters, and three pinakes are ascribed to him today . In addition to his work for the domestic market, he was one of the masters who played a key role in the fact that Attic vases replaced Corinthian vase painting in the Etruscan-Italian and sub-Italian-Greek regions, the most important export destination for Greek vases . His works were even exported to the Black Sea region , Syria and Egypt ( Naukratis ).

He was one of the first painters to use opaque colors for their works on a large scale and thus considerably increased the optical and artistic distance between black-figure vase painting and Corinthian vase painting. While Sophilos still clung to old traditions in his ornaments and animal representations, he treaded completely new paths with the intervening, mostly mythological scenes. He broke through the standardized scenarios, let characters act individually and told the story in a funny, completely unconventional way. As his own style matured, he pushed back ornamental design in favor of figurative representations, which took up ever larger space. Stylistically, his works are close to the late Gorgon painter , whom he developed further and thereby paved the way for clitias , which then culminated in the François vase .

Despite his progressive picture structure and the talent to create new scenes over and over again, his lines were usually not very careful, which hardly harms the overall impression of his works.

Works (selection)

Neck amphora. Late work (around 580 BC). On the neck of Hermes between sphinxes , on the body next to Artemis animals, plants, sphinxes and geese. Found in marathon

• Athens, National Museum

Neck amphora 991 • Chalice crater 995 • Neck amphora 1036 • Fragment of a dinosaur 15499 • Two fragments of a luterion from the dome tomb of Menidi 15918 and 15942

• formerly Berlin, Antikensammlung

Belly amphora F 1683 (lost since 1945)

• Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

Tripod Kothon 98.915

• Jena, Friedrich Schiller University

amphora

• London, British Museum

Dinos 1971-11-11

literature

• John D. Beazley : Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford 1956, pp. 37-42.
• Güven Bakır : Sophilus. A contribution to his style. (= Ceramic research . Volume 4). Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-8053-0446-3 .
• Rainer Vollkommer (Hrsg.): Artists lexicon of antiquity . Volume 2: L-Z. Addendum A – K. Saur, Munich / Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-598-11414-1 , pp. 407-408. sv Sophilos (I) ( Bettina Kreuzer ).
• Jane B. Carter, Sarah P. Morris (Eds.): The Ages of Homer: A Tribute to Emily Townsend Vermeule. University of Texas Press, 1998, ISBN 0-292-71208-1 , pp. 363-372.

Web links

Commons : Sophilos  - collection of images, videos and audio files