Darius painter

Marking of the Dareios figure with inscription (ΔΑΡΕΙΟΣ, top right) on the Perservase

The Dareios painter (also Darius painter ) was an Apulian vase painter and an important representative of the rich style of Lower Italian vase painting . His works are dated from 340 to 320 BC. Dated.

The Darius Painter was named with an emergency name after Darius I , who he portrayed in his most famous work, the Perservase . Many of his works -  volute craters , amphorae , loutrophorae  - are large. He mainly depicted motifs from the world of theater, especially from the classical tragedies of Euripides , and mythological scenes. Several mythological representations are only known through his vases. On other vases (especially pelicas ) he also shows wedding, eros, woman and Dionysian motifs. In contrast to other painters of the time, sepulkrale scenes (such as on Naïskos vases ) are rare, and when they occur, then almost always only on the back. Some pictures, like the one on the Perservase, show references to contemporary history. Obviously the painter showed an interest in the conquests of Alexander the great .

Phrixos crater

The frequent use of inscriptions in the Darius painter is noticeable . He not only names characters with a personal name, but also according to thematic aspects ( e.g. persai for Persians). Some of these inscriptions can be seen as “picture titles”. He is also known for using the entire surface of the vases for the illustration, which is often done in two or three registers. Sometimes the individual zones are structured by opulent ornamental friezes. The Dareios painter is considered to be the first painter to take advantage of the large-scale vases. His drawings are considered very good. Especially the faces, which he often shows in three-quarter view, are reproduced very precisely.

Fish plate from the environment of the Dareios painter

The Dareios painter probably worked in a large, manufactory-like workshop in Taranto and was the style-determining factor for the vase painting that followed in Puglia. Possibly the painter was the owner or workshop manager. Stylistically he follows the Varrese painter and his circle (such as the painter from Copenhagen 4223 ), but he can outstrip their legacy. In addition to him, the Perrone Painter and the Phrixos Painter stand out, who manufactured more than just mass-produced goods. The most important successor of the Darius painter was the underworld painter . Arthur Dale Trendall , the most important researcher of Lower Italian vase painting, described the Darius painter as the most important painter of mythological scenes in all of Lower Italian vase painting.

literature

• Margot Schmidt : The Darius painter and his circle. Studies of late Apulian vase painting (= Orbis antiquus 15, ISSN  0078-5555 ). Aschendorff, Münster 1960 (at the same time: Münster, Univ., Diss., 1958).
• Jean-Marc Moret: L'Ilioupersis dans la céramique italiote. Les mythes et leur expression figurée au IVe siècle (= Biblioteca Helvetica Romana 14, ZDB -ID 419869-4 ). 2 volumes. Institut Suisse de Rome, Rome 1975.
• Alexandre Cambitoglou , AD Trendall : The red-figured Vases of Apulia. Volume 2: Late Apulian. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1982, ISBN 0-19-813219-0 .
• Christian Aellen, Alexandre Cambitoglou , Jacques Chamay: Le peintre de Darius et son milieu. Vases grecs d'Italie Méridionale (= Hellas et Roma 4, ZDB -ID 593304-3 ). Hellas et Roma, Geneva 1986.
• Arthur Dale Trendall: red-figure vases from southern Italy and Sicily. A manual (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 47). von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1111-7 , especially pp. 85-177.
• Françoise-Hélène Pairault-Massa: Le Peintre de Darius et l'actualité. De la Macédoine à la Grande Grèce. In: Luisa Breglia Pulci Doria (ed.): L'Incidenza dell'antico. Studi in memoria di Ettore Lepore. Volume 2. Luciano, Naples 1996, ISBN 88-86767-19-6 , pp. 235-262.
• Rolf Hurschmann : Darius painter. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 3, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01473-8 , Sp. 324.
• Claude Pouzadoux: Guerre et paix en Peucétie à l'époque d'Alexandre le Molosse. (Notes sur quelques vases du Peintre de Darius). In: Elizabeth Deniaux (ed.): Le Canal d'otrante et la Méditerranée antique et médiévale (= Insulae Diomedeae 2). Colloque organisée à l'Université de Paris X, Nanterre November 20-21, 2000. Edipuglia, Bari 2005, ISBN 88-7228-418-X , pp. 51-65.
• Christos Ioannitis: Le vase des Ibères. Un lécythe du Peintre de Darius. von Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-8053-3806-6 .
• Thomas Morard: Horizontalité et verticalité. Le bandeau humain et le bandeau divin chez le Peintre de Darius. von Zabern, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-8053-3965-0 .

Web links

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