Berlin Painter

[1] Many of his valued works were preserved as élite grave goods in the necropoleis of Magna Graecia and Etruria, notably at Vulci, Nola and Locri.

The figures are carefully superimposed on one another, forming a unified contour isolated against the black background of the vase.

The kantharos is raised to his lips, while he holds the lyre at his side, his fingers touching the stings.

Above the scene is a carefully drawn band of ivy leaves and grape bunches; below, forming a groundline but not extending all the way around the vase, is a running spiral, a rare pattern ornament in Attic Red Figure vase paintings.

[5] On his other vases, painted red figures are usually isolated or paired without framing devices against a glossy black ground.

The tall figures often start near the middle of the vase and continue over the shoulder, stopping at the neck.

The Berlin Painter used dilute glaze to add red tones onto his vases.

He is also known for his careful key patterns, which border the bottom of his single figures, and are unique to the Berlin painter and his students.

A masterpiece of Greek vase painting is the kithara player and singer attributed to the Berlin Painter and held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.