Nearchus (potter)

Pygmies fight cranes; Corinthian aryballos signed by Nearchus as a potter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (26.49); around 570 BC Chr.

Peripheral shell with potter's signature at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (61.11.2) to 560/50 v. Chr.

Nearchos ( ancient Greek Νέαρχος ) was an Attic pottery and vase painter of the Attic - black- style, active v Athens to 570-550. Chr.

Eight signed works by Nearchus are known, one of which he signed as a potter and painter.

As a painter, Nearchus is close to the painter of Akropolis 606 in some stylistic elements, especially the delicacy of the drawings. Unlike other artists of the time, Nearchos managed to give his figures a dignity in some of his works, for which the later famous painter Exekias is also known , for example . A kantharos from the Athens Acropolis stands out in particular, which Nearchos worked and edited both as a potter and as a painter, on which he shows Achilles harnessing his horses. Kantharoi were one of its most popular forms. He signed them both as a potter and as a painter. He also introduced some innovations, such as the attempt to cover a horse's body with white paint. One cannot always regard his experiments as successful.

Another vessel that illustrates his artistic mastery was an aryballos in Corinthian style, which he painted on the upper edge with a frieze of pygmies and cranes. What was special was that the total height of the vessel was not even 8 cm and the frieze only took up a small part of the height. Small master bowls are also occupied by Nearchus .

Nearchus is associated with a foundation on the Athens Acropolis , whose base inscription names a potter (?) Of the name as consecrating and the sculptor Antenor as the executor. The associated statutes are generally identified with the so-called Antenor-Kore . If these assignments are correct, Nearchus must have come to some wealth and he must have been able to donate the largest of the surviving Koren statues from the Acropolis.

literature

Hans Nachod : Nearchus 6. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XVI, 2, Stuttgart 1935, Col. 2155.
John D. Beazley : Attic Black-figure Vase-Painting. Oxford 1956, pp. 82-83.
John D. Beazley: Paralipomena. Additions to Attic black-figure vase-painters and to Attic red-figure vase-painters. Oxford 1971, pp. 30-31.
Bettina Kreuzer : Nearchos (I). In: Rainer Vollkommer (Hrsg.): Künstlerlexikon der Antike . Volume 2: L-Z. Addendum A – K. Saur, Munich / Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-598-11414-1 , pp. 113-114.

Web links

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

Remarks

^ New York, Metropolitan Museum 26.49 [1] .

personal data
SURNAME	Nearchus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Attic potter and vase painter
DATE OF BIRTH	before 570 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH	after 550 BC Chr.

[1] New York, Metropolitan Museum 26.49 [1] .