Meidias painter

Women with Eros and Aphrodite , Eichellythos in the manner of the Meidias painter, around 410/00 BC Chr.

The Meidias Painter is a Greek vase painter of the Attic - red-figure style. He worked in the last quarter of the 5th century BC. In Athens.

Name vase, around 420/00 BC Chr.

The Meidias painter got its emergency name after a hydria , now in London, British Museum inventory number E 224, which was created and signed by the potter Meidias . On his name vase and other hydrates, he uses the entire surrounding space that these vessels offer him to tell two stories in two friezes lying one above the other. In the name vase he shows in the upper frieze how the Dioscuri stole the Leucippids , in the lower frieze Heracles in the garden of the Hesperides . Less than a dozen vases are unequivocally ascribed to the Meidias Painter, but there are various pieces that are described in research as being in the manner of the Meidias Painter . For this purpose, other pieces can also be assigned to the painter with a high degree of certainty. His circle includes other painters such as Aristophanes and Aison , whose work is sometimes attributed to the Meidias painter, as well as the painter of the Paris of Karlsruhe and the painter of the wedding of Athens .

The figures of the Meidias painter often appear dance-like, are usually carefully put together and avoid the impression of arbitrary arrangement like many other "crowd scenes" on red-figure vases. His drawing style is reminiscent of that of the Eretria painter . This also means that models from classical sculpture are taken into account. But the pictures of the Meidias painter have a different mood, appear less powerful and relaxed. Sometimes certain poses seem theatrical. His drawings are of high quality, especially the ornamental bands that serve to divide the friezes are very precise.

literature

John D. Beazley : Attic red-figure vase-painters . 2nd edition. Oxford 1963.
John Boardman : Red-Figure Vases from Athens. The classical time (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 48). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1262-8 , p. 152f.

Web links

Commons : Meidias-Maler - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Meidias painter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek vase painter
DATE OF BIRTH	5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.