It is suggested that the Sisyphus Painter was influenced by some Attic artists, namely the Dwarf Painter and the Kodros Painter. His range of subjects also turns less and less imaginative, limited almost entirely to youths, warriors and women. Towards the later phase of his activity, the quality of his work deteriorated, many of his late paintings appear very stereotypical, the faces rounder, their features coarser. On the backs he always painted two or three cloaked youths. He mainly painted scenes of everyday life or dionysiac scenes. His early work includes a variety of bell kraters, usually decorated with three figures. Especially on larger vases he showed his quality as a painter of heads, often depicted in a three-quarter profile.Īrrival or departure of a young warrior or hero, volute krater, circa 410/400 BC. Nonetheless, the quality of his works is uneven. Arthur Dale Trendall described the Sisyphus Painter as 'probably the dominant artist of the Taras School'. He follows the tradition of the Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl in whose workshop he is assumed to have started. His conventional name is derived from the inscription on the heart-shaped gift held by a youth as part of the depiction of a wedding on one of his volute kraters. He is one of the most influential painters in the Apulian vase painting tradition, and thus in all South Italian vase painting. The Sisyphus Painter is only known by this conventional name, as his true name remains unknown. His works are dated to the last two decades of the fifth century and the very early fourth century BC. The Sisyphus Painter was an Apulian red-figure vase painter. Amazonomachy on a volute krater, circa 410/400 BC.

Sisyphus art