The Niobid Krater
The Niobid Painter (active c. 470-450 BC) · c. 460-450 BC
A large calyx krater, the bowl in which Greeks mixed wine and water at a banquet, painted in Athens with two scenes that changed the history of vase painting. On one side Apollo and Artemis shoot down the children of Niobe, who had boasted that she was a better mother than theirs; bodies fall among the rocks. On the other, Heracles stands at the centre with his club and bow, lion skin over his arm, surrounded by armed heroes and by Athena in her helmet and aegis. Some scholars read them as the Argonauts, others as the Athenian heroes of Marathon.
What is new is the space. Instead of lining the figures up on a single ground line, the painter scatters them at different heights over wavy white lines that stand for rocky terrain, so that some warriors sit or recline while others stand behind them. The idea comes from the great wall paintings of Polygnotos, now lost, and this vase is one of the best witnesses to them. The krater was found at Orvieto in Etruria in 1880 and bought by the Louvre in 1883, and it gives its name to the anonymous artist known as the Niobid Painter.
Did You Know? The painter's real name is unknown; scholars named him after this very vase.
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