Nikosthenes was a potter of Greek black-

Black-figure pottery

Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the most modern styles for adorning antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC...

 and red-figure pottery

Red-figure pottery

Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 530 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC. It replaced the previously dominant style of Black-figure vase painting within a few decades...

 in the time window 545-510 B.C. He is thought to have been associated with the work of the painters Oltos

Oltos

Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens. From the time between 525 BC and 500 BC, about 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, a cup in Berlin and a cup in Tarquinia , are signed by him as painter.Oltos is thought to have begun his career in the workshop of the potter...

, Lydos

Lydos

Lydos was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style. Active between '’circa’’ 560 and 530 BC, he was the main representative of the '’’Lydos Group’’’ ....

, Epiktetos

Epiktetos

Epiktetos was an Attic vase painter in the early red-figure style. Besides Oltos, he is the most important painter of the Pioneer Group. He was active between 520 and 490 BC...

 and the Nikosthenes-Painter.

Nikosthenes was the owner of one of the largest pottery workshops in Athens in the latter part of the sixth century BCE. He is noted for specializing in production of vases for the Etruscan market. In particular the so-called Nikosthenic amphora

Nikosthenic amphora

The term Nikosthenic amphora describes a specific type of Attic vase. It was invented in the late 6th century BC by the potter Nikosthenes, aimed specifically for esport to Etruria....

, the Attic

Attic

An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...

 kyathos

Kyathos

Kyathos is the name given in modern terminology to a type of painted ancient Greek vase with a tall, round, slightly tapering bowl and a single, flat, long, looping handle. Its closest modern parallel would be a ladle....

 and the Nikosthenic pyxis

Pyxis

Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for a mariner's compass...

 were designed on Etruscan shapes and exported to Etruria

Etruria

Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...

 with no known local examples in Athens. In spite of this the majority of the production of the workshop was devoted to kylixes and amphora

Amphora

An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...

. There is considerable discussion about the size of the workshop. Identification of the products of the workshop are based primarily on the large number (133) vases signed by Nikosthenes epoiesen (Niksothenes made me) and similar variants. The signatures were placed on the vase in glaze (paint) and show a variety of hands and spellings. Added to these vases are vases which can be linked to these vases on the basis of detailed stylistic analysis. Most scholars would accept that it contained about 30 to 40 workers at any one time between 530 and 505. In 1999, V. Tosto attempted to downsize the workshop to a small handful of assistants and temporary workers around Nikosthenes who worked as both painter and potter. This has been rejected by M. Eisman who not only holds for the larger sized workshop but has suggested that Nikosthenes himself came from Chalkis and began working with a small workshop of Anakles around 550 and then developed his own workshop.

The Nikosthenic production while large is not particularly distinguished for its quality. While the vases are well potted and the overall quality of the painting is good there only a few outstanding vases that would hold their own with the more distinguished painters working at that time. In addition to the painters of the Nikosthenic amphora and kyathoi a number of well-known painters were part of the workshop at various times including Psiax

Psiax

Psiax was an Attic vase painter of the transitional period between the black-figure and red-figure styles. His works date to circa 525 to 505 BC and comprise about 60 surviving vases, two of which bear his signature. Initially he was allocated the name Menon Painter by John Beazley...

, Oltos

Oltos

Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens. From the time between 525 BC and 500 BC, about 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, a cup in Berlin and a cup in Tarquinia , are signed by him as painter.Oltos is thought to have begun his career in the workshop of the potter...

, the 'BMN Painter

BMN Painter

The BMN Painter was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style, active during the third quarter of the 6th century BC.Initially, the BMN painter worked for the potter Lydos. Of the collabrotaion between the two, a Band cup and a belly amphora are known...

" and the 'Theseus Painter'. It is possible that there was a connection with the Andokides

Andokides

Andokides was a famous potter of Ancient Greece. The painter of his pots was an anonymous artist, the Andokides painter, who is recognized as the creater of the red-figure style, beginning around 530 BC. His work is compared with Exekias, who was said to have created the most detailed and best...

 workshop which produce very high quality vases in small quantities. One of its primary painters, the Lysippides Painter

Lysippides Painter

The Lysippides Painter was an Attic vase painter in the black-figure style. He was active around 530 to 510 BC. His real name is not known.- Life and work :...

, may have produced a series of elaborate kylixes with gorgoneion

Gorgoneion

In Ancient Greece, the Gorgoneion was originally a horror-creating apotropaic pendant showing the Gorgon's head. It was assimilated by the Olympian deities Zeus and Athena: both are said to have worn it as a protective pendant...

 heads in the interior for the workshop. The workshop seems to have passed into the hands of Pamphaios

Pamphaios

Pamphaios was an Attic vase painter active around the end of the 6th century BC.Pampphaios was the successor of Nikosthenes in that artist's workshop, and thus took over from one of the most influential and creative potters of antiquity...

 somewhere between 505 and 500 and continued under his direction for a number of years before it disappears somewhere around 490.

Literature

• John Beazley
  John Beazley
  Sir John Davidson Beazley was an English classical scholar.Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Beazley attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a close friend of the poet James Elroy Flecker. After graduating in 1907, Beazley was a student and tutor in Classics at Christ Church, and in 1925 he...
  
  , "Attic Black-figure Vase-Painters, 1954.
• M.M. Eisman, Attic Kyathos Painters, 1971.
• M.M. Eisman, "Nikosthenic Amphorae" The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal I (1974)43-54
• M.M. Eisman, "A Further Note on EPOIESEN Signatures" Jornal of Hellenic Studies, 94 (1974)172
• M.M. Eisman, "Attic Kyathos Production" Archaeology, 28 (1975) 76-82.
• M.M. Eisman, "Nikosthenes and Chalkis" ATINER Conference on European History - 2006, 2007,forthcoming.
• V. Tosto: The Black-figure Pottery Signed NIKOSTHENESEPOSIEN, 1999 (Allard Pierson Series 11)