( fl mid-4th century BC). Greek vase painter. He is among the better known of the KERCH STYLE painters (see above) and a late but accomplished practitioner of Attic Red-figure. His tall, slender figures combine frontal with three-quarter views and other parts of the body in profile, giving an impression of three-dimensionality. This is illustrated by a pelike showing Peleus Abducting Thetis (see GREECE, ANCIENT, fig. 115), which also includes a three-quarter back view of a naked nymph running into the background, creating a sense of depth that was new to vase painting at the time. He is named after the depiction on a pelike (St Petersburg, Hermitage, KEK 8) of Marsyas Awaiting his Fate. The characteristic crispness and plasticity of the drapery of the Marsyas Painter’s clothed figures may have been inspired by sculpture. Like many of his contemporaries he used white highlighting to emphasize certain figures and objects or to focus or balance his compositions. He also occasionally employed other colours, notably blue and red, to enhance clothing and erotes’ wings, with gold for jewellery, erotes’ wings and any details in relief. His fine, precise drawing recalls works by such predecessors as the Jena Painter, and his stylistic innovations contributed to the final flowering of Attic Red-figure.

Part of the Vase painters family

• Marsyas Painter
  • Kerch Style
  • works
    • Dress, §II, 2: Greek
    • Greece, ancient, §V, 6(i)(e): Attic Red-figure pottery, 4th century BC