Siren painter is the nickname of an ancient Greek artist who decorated but did not sign Attic red-figured vases. His real name is unknown, as are the date of his birth and death.

Following to common scholar's practice, this artist's name was derived from the subject of one of his artworks, a red-figured stamnos

Stamnos

A stamnos is a type of Greek pottery used to store liquids. It is much squatter than an amphora and has two stubby handles relatively high on its sides. It is a relatively unusual container form. Generally, it was used for mixing and storing....

 which illustrates a scene from Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

´s Odyssey

Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...

 (XII, 39): Odysseus is tied to the mast of his ship when he is passing along the island of the Siren

Siren

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...

s, dangerous bird-women.

The Siren painter was presumably working in Athens in the years 480 to 470 BC.

Some of his preserved vases are on public display:

• London, British Museum
  British Museum
  The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
  
  : Odysseus and the Sirens. ca. 480-470 BC.
• Paris, Musée du Louvre
  Louvre
  The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
  
  : The struggle between Herakles and Apollo for the Delphic tripod, ca. 480 BC.

Further reading

• 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 red figured vase painters, 2nd edition (Oxford, 1963)