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Villa Giulia Painter
( fl c. 470–c. 440 BC). Greek vase painter. The Master of the Villa Giulia Calyx krater, to give him his full name, has been attributed with c. 120 surviving vases. Most of these are large—kraters, stamnoi, pelikai and kalpides—though he also painted smaller shapes, including alabastra, leythoi, pyxides, rhyta and cups (see GREECE, ANCIENT, fig. 71). The cups and the large pots are iconographically dissimilar and must be anchored in different traditions. His figures are normally tall and solemn and are frequently shown pouring a libation, as in the gathering of gods on a cylindroid (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam X13). He added a personal touch to traditional themes: a young satyr appears in the procession of adult satyrs and maenads on a calyx krater (Karlsruhe, Bad. Landesmus. 208); the infant Dionysos is shown in the lap of Hermes on a calyx krater in Moscow (Pushkin Mus. F.A. 16732); and on an alabastron (Providence, RI, Sch. Des., Mus. A. 25.088) he painted a mother or nurse with two boys, one asleep on her shoulder, the other holding tight to her chiton. He must also have been fond of animals: a fawn looks up at Apollo on the replica pelikai at Malibu, CA (Getty Mus. 77. AE.12.1–2; see Frel); a heron stalks through a gynaikeion (women’s quarters) on a kalpis (Switzerland, priv. col.; sold Basel, Münzen und Medaillen AG, 19 Feb 1980, no. 105); and he frequently painted horsemen. His mythological themes include Perseus sneaking up to the Gorgon on a bell-krater in Madrid (Mus. Arqueol. N. 11010), the daughters of Pelias hatching mischief on a kalpis (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam 12.17), and, on another kalpis (Rome, Vatican, Mus. Gregoriano Etrus. 16509), the sleeping Herakles being robbed by satyrs, a scene which must have been inspired by a satyr play. More than half of his preserved stamnoi depict the Lenaia, a festival celebrating the new wine and the rebirth of Dionysos. Athenian women appear as maenads, though a parasol on one stamnos (Boston, MA, Mus. F.A. 90.155) reveals their true origins.
Part of the Vase painters family
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