Douris (vase painter)
Vaticans Museums
Douris or Duris (
Athenian red-figure
vase-painter and potter active c. 500 to 460 BCE.
Work
He began his career painting for the potters
kylixes, i.e. cups. His name seems to have been popular, since one finds it on other vases: it is reproduced on a cup by Onesimos.[4] On the basis of these signatures, his kalos inscriptions, and of the subsidiary decoration of the vases, the art historian John Beazley
divided his career into four principal periods:
Period 1
- (Very early and early) Is characterized by a full ornamentation of diverse border motifs. The preferred subjects are the symposium, the komoi (processions of drunks), and warriors. The period is marked out by the use of the kalos-inscription 'Chairestratos'. Beazley suggests that at this time Douris could have worked side by side with Onesimos in the same workshop.
Period 2
- (Early middle) Douris' collaboration with Euphronios ends; from then on, he paints for the potter Python. Chairestratos remains the preferred kalos-inscription. Subsidiary decoration begins to recede, and the majority of the medallions do not have an edge. The favoured subjects are the scenes of youths and athletes. The hand of Douris is made clear from now on by the characteristic use of a kind of hook for the inner end of the collarbone. A characteristic piece of the period is a psykter (wine cooler) decorated with drunken satyrs, reproducing in a grotesque manner the different stages of intoxication.[5]
Period 3
- (Middle) Douris' style is here at its most idiosyncratic. The edges of the medallion are characterized by the alternation of an element of a meander and squares; palmettes decorate the handles of the cup. The kalos-inscriptions 'Hippodamas' become prevalent; Douris' signatures become scarcer. Douris returns to the scenes of the symposium, and to depictions of warriors and school-scenes. A characteristic piece of this period is the cup known as of the "pieta of Memnon":
Period 4
- (Late) Douris returns to a full ornamentation. The borders sometimes retain the period-3 ('Hippodamas-type') border of alternating stopped meanders and saltire crosses, but gradually revert to the common type; the palmettes on the handles become complicated and of the motifs of the lotus appear in parallel. Douris' signatures disappear altogether and the kalos-inscriptions decrease in frequency; one finds 'Polyphrasmon' and 'HIketes'. The drawing quality degenerates in grace and force.
References
- ^ "Perseus:image:1993.01.0406". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
- ^ A globular aryballos, Athens 15375. ARV2, 447, 274.
- ^ Boardman suggests "some three hundred" (op. cit., p. 137); Dyfri Williams indicates "around 250", Greek Vases, British Museum Press, 1999 (1st edition 1985), p. 77.
- ^ "Perseus:image:1990.33.0489.lg". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
- ^ "psykter | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
- ^ "404". www.louvre.fr. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
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Sources
- John Beazley, "Attic Red-figure Vase-painters". Second edition, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1963.
- John Boardman. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.
- Diana Buitron-Oliver. Douris. A Master-Painter of Athenian Red-Figure Vases. (in Kerameus, Vol. 9, 2005, online
- Edmond Pottier and Jane Ellen Harrison (translated by Bettina Kahnweiler). Douris and the Painters of Greek Vases. London: J. Murray, 1908.
- The Getty Museum - Biography of Douris
External links
Media related to Douris at Wikimedia Commons
- The Getty Museum - Biography of Douris
- Douris kylix in Kimbell Art Museum
- Douris collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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