( fl c. 575–c. 565 BC). Greek vase painter. He was influenced by Corinthian work and was among the earliest Lakonian Black-figure vase painters (see GREECE, ANCIENT, §V, 5(iii)), and apparently established the canonical decorative scheme for Lakonian cups, which have an exergue under the main scene in the interior and patterned bands on the exterior with horizontal palmettes by the handles. His surviving output is limited to cups, and these, though numerous, are mostly fragmentary. Most come from Samos, Naukratis and Olympia, none from Sparta. He is named after a vase (Rome, Villa Giulia) depicting The Boreads Pursuing the Harpies. Unlike his contemporary the NAUKRATIS PAINTER, he was a narrative artist whose simply painted, lively scenes would have been better suited to long friezes than they were to their constricted cup tondi. In addition to several paintings of the Boreads he depicted Bellerophon and the Chimaera, the Introduction of Herakles to Olympos, and, more than once, Herakles and the Hydra and Achilles’ Ambush of Troilos. The decoration surrounding the tondi almost always consists of pomegranates. His work was imitated by later Lakonian artists, including his pupil the RIDER PAINTER and the ARKESILAOS PAINTER, and influenced cups from Samos and Chios.

Part of the Vase painters family

• Boreads Painter
  • Greece, ancient, §V, 5(iii): Black-figure pottery: Lakonian
  • Vase painters, §II: Rider Painter