The Achilles Painter
John H. Oakley, The College of William and Mary in Virginia

3. Red-Figure Vases

The earliest vases by the Achilles Painter are red-figure and date to the 460s. Both the style of drawing, compositions and figural types are clearly derived from the work of the Berlin Painter. Compare, for example, the woman running right (perhaps Aegina) and looking back toward her pursuer Zeus on a lekythos in Hamburg (Hamburg 1983.278), [4] with the woman on a lekythos in Cambridge by the Berlin Painter (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 37.28). [5] Not only are their poses the same, but the lines for the folds of their short mantles are almost identical. There are, however, slight differences that allow one to distinguish between the artists, particularly the short, curving lines in the gaps between the sets of long parallel lines for the folds of the lower chiton on the Achilles Painter's vase. But given the close resemblances, there is no doubt the Achilles Painter learned his craft from the Berlin Painter.