Brygos Painter

He was a prolific artist to whom over two hundred vases have been attributed, but he is perhaps best known for the Brygos Cup, a red-figure kylix in the Louvre which depicts the "iliupersis" or sack of Troy.

The artist’s name is derived from several cups painted in a distinctive style and bearing the signature “Brygos.” This inscription, currently present on sixteen vessels (some complete pieces and some fragments), is often accompanied by the word epoiesen.

This would imply that indeed the name of Brygos most likely belongs to the potter who fashioned the matrices on which the unnamed painter created his masterpieces.

Nevertheless, the name “Brygos Painter” has been used by scholars since P. Hartwig as a means to outline a single master’s style and artistic production.

Its burned exterior and excavation alongside remnants of marble architecture indicate it was part of the debris from the Persian destruction of the site, giving it a terminus ante quem of 480 BCE.

Apart from kylikes, he also painted other vase shapes, such as skyphoi, kantharoi, rhyta, a calathus-like vessel with a pouring spout and a number of lekythoi.

[5] His teacher appears to have been Onesimos, as his style is derived from the earlier work of that master, and their periods of production run parallel.

[6] Typical subjects are symposium and palaistra scenes, and his figures are characterized by their flat-topped heads, long noses, and narrow eyes with high, arching eyebrows.

His skill in painting the human mouth is exceptional: his figures are shown whistling, singing, playing the flute or clenching their lips with a high degree of anatomical accuracy.

As with most Greek vase-painters, the real name of the Brygos Painter is unknown, and he is identified only by the stylistic traits of his work.

Dionysos and satyrs , tondo from a kylix by the Brygos Painter, c. 480 BCE. Paris, Louvre .
Aulos player, tondo of a red-figure kylix, c. 490 BCE. Paris, Louvre .
Alcaeus and Sappho , Side A of an Attic red-figure calathus, ca. 470 BC. From Akragas, Staatliche Antikensammlungen
Zeuxo and Chrysippos , tondo of a red-figure kylix, c. 490/480 BCE. From the "Brygos Tomb" (Tomb II), Capua. London, British Museum .
Raging maenad . She holds a thyrsos in her right hand, her left is swinging a panther through the air. A snake is winding through the diadem in her hair. Tondo of a white-ground kylix , 490-480 BCE. Munich , Staatliche Antikensammlungen .