Dmitrii Vasko
Saint Petersburg State University; The State Hermitage Museum, Russia
Late attic vase painting seems extremely diverse, but it can be divided into two groups. On the one hand, there are expensive, rare, high-quality vessels, carefully made and painted with added color, added clay and gilding — the true masterpieces of the Kerch style vase painting. On the other hand, there are cheap, mass produced handicrafts with monotonous subjects of paintings, executed in haste. However, the gap between the “poles” is not as great as it might seem at first glance. A vivid example is the oeuvre of the Painter of Athens 1472.
This vase-painter was “discovered” by J. D. Beazley. He noticed that some of the figures resemble the works of the Marsyas Painter. S. A. Hoyt observed that the preliminary sketches of two vessels, painted on the same subject by these painters, were executed by a skillful draughtsman (perhaps by the Marsyas Painter himself), so both vase-painters worked at the same time and in the same workshop, and one depended on the other in terms of creative work, which explains J. D. Beazley’s observation.
According to S. A. Hoyt, the Marsyas Painter, probably being the leading vase-painter of the workshop, made only high-quality paintings and preliminary figures on vases, which after were used by his less experienced collegues in the workshop, including the Painter of Athens 1472. Moreover, the latter also painted small uniform pelikai with simple images of protomes and figures in mantles — a task, suitable for his skills and demanding no participation of the Marsyas Painter.
This was an efficient division of labor in the workshop, which satisfied the needs of not only the rich but also less wealthy buyers.
Pelikai inv. Pan.761, P.1870.136, P.1908.63, P.1851/52.21 and P.1859.2 from the State Hermitage museum collection complement our understanding of the works of the Painter of Athens 1472, who created both high-quality, though not quite independently made, paintings, and also mass produced paintings.