{{Short description|Name referring to unknown vase decorator}} [[File:Pankration Met 06.1021.49.jpg|thumb|right|An Attic black-figure [[skyphos]] attributed to the Theseus Painter, c. 500 BCE. [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].]] The '''Theseus Painter''' was a decorator of vases in the [[black-figure style]], active in [[Attica]] c. 515 to 475 BCE.<ref name=Borgers>{{cite book|last=Borgers|first=O. E.|title=The Theseus Painter. Style, Shapes and Iconography|year=2003|publisher=University of Amsterdam|url=http://dare.uva.nl/pt/record/137577}} Later published as {{cite book|last=Borgers|first=Olaf|title=The Theseus Painter: Style, Shapes and Iconography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHFLPwAACAAJ|access-date=13 January 2013|year=2004|publisher=Allard Pierson Series|isbn=978-90-71211-41-6}}</ref>{{RP|1}} He was the leading producer of larger Heron Class [[skyphoi]].<ref name="Robertson1994">{{cite book|last=Robertson|first=Martin|title=The Art of Vase-Painting in Classical Athens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BmmW1h7Qk7MC|access-date=13 January 2013|date=28 January 1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-33881-3}}</ref>{{RP|132}}
== Life and work == The true name of the Theseus Painter and the circumstances of his life have not been preserved. He is conventionally called the Theseus Painter because of the frequency with which he and his followers depicted various episodes of the ''Theseid'', the peregrinations of [[Theseus]].<ref name="potter and patron in classical athens">{{cite book|last=Webster|first=T. B. L.|title=Potter and Patron in Classical Athens|year=1972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ZoOAAAAQAAJ|access-date=13 January 2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref>{{RP|84}}
Stylistic evidence indicates that he was contemporaneous with and a "dominant influence" among the Sub-krokotos group,{{refn|group="nb"|The followers of the so-called Krokotos Painter, whose name is derived from the Greek {{lang|grc|κροκωτός}} (krokōtos) (saffron-yellow dress robe). The female figures in his work often wear ''krokōtoi''.<ref name=Borgers />{{RP|5}}}}<ref name=Ure>{{cite journal|last=Ure|first=A. D.|title=Krokotos and White Heron|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|year=1955|volume=75|pages=90–103|jstor=629174|doi=10.2307/629174}}</ref>{{RP|103}} and was perhaps a student of [[Pamphaios]]. He established his own workshop in Attica with the [[Athena Painter]],<ref name="potter and patron in classical athens" />{{RP|84}} and together they specialized in the production of skyphoi, [[lekythoi]], and [[oinochoai]] in the black-figure style.<ref name=Borgers />{{RP|4}}
Although the more fashionable [[red-figure]] style had largely displaced the black-figure style at the turn of the sixth century, his work nonetheless enjoyed a certain measure of popularity, being found as far afield as [[Thasos]] to the north, [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]] to the south, [[Rhodes]] to the east, and the far coast of Italy and Sicily to the west. He was a prolific artist, and stood out among practitioners of the obsolescent black-figure style by virtue of his skilful and inventive work.<ref name=Borgers />{{RP|140–1}}
== Notes == {{Reflist|group="nb"}}
== References == {{Reflist}} {{Greek vase painters}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek vase painters]] [[Category:Anonymous artists of antiquity]] [[Category:6th-century BC Athenians]] [[Category:5th-century BC Athenians]] [[Category:5th-century BC Greek art]] [[Category:Artists from Athens]]