Python (painter)

Python (ca. 360-320 BCE) was a Greek vase painter in the city of Poseidonia (modern Paestum) in Campania, Southern Italy, one of the major cities of Magna Graecia in the 4th Century BCE. Together with his close collaborator and likely master Asteas, Python is one of only two vase painters from Southern Italy whose names have survived on extant works <RFP>. It has even been suggested that Asteas and Python's joint workshop in Paestum was a family business <CGP>. He is not to be confused with the attic vase painter of the early 5th century BCE of the same name <https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(T%C3%B6pfer)>.

There are two extant works signed by the Paestan Python:

A Bell crater showing Alcmene on the pyre, about to be burned by Amphitryon, being rescued by Zeus’ rainfall. Python’s signature is in the rim of the obverse face, (with the verb in the contracted form: ΠΥΘΟΝ ΕΓΡΑΦΕ). Reverse: Youthful Dionysus with two dancing maenads and three satyrs watching from a higher level. Bell crater, British Museum B.M. number 1890,0210.1, from St. Agata dei Goti. RVP no 2/239 plate 88.

Neck amphora with the birth of Helen from Leda’s egg (with Python’s signature in the altar base, ΠΥΘΟΝ ΕΓΡΑΦΕ); Reverse: Dionysian scene (seated Dionysus with young satyr and maenad). Neck amphora, Paestum 21370, from Paestum. RVP no 2/240 plate 89. http://www.culturaitalia.it/opencms/museid/viewItem.jsp?language=it&id=oai%3Aculturaitalia.it%3Amuseiditalia-work_36454#

Stylistic similarities with the signed works allow the association of Python and his workshop with a large number of smaller vessels, and a sizeable number of known bell craters, amphorae, lebetes gamikoi, lekythoi and a few calyx-kraters. Python's works are all in the red-figure style and painted on a clay with rich orange-brown colour and a high content of very small mica particles. His style is somewhat more heavy-handed than that of Asteas and, especially on the smaller vessels, strongly stereotyped. He favoured the use of multi-coloured added decoration in white, yellow, black and red. His figures sometimes seem stiff, with the round and large heads and thick limbs falling behind the more elegant style of Asteas. The decoration on the larger pieces tends to be dense. The edges of draped garments on his figures are almost uniformly lined with the typical Paestan dot-line pattern that evolved in the Asteas-Python workshop. Seated figures in side-view show a recurrent pose identical for both male and female figures, with one leg posed slightly before the other. Typical of Python's style is the posture of seated figures on scrolls or vines, or standing figures resting one foot on a scroll. This characteristic has been continued by the painter of Naples 2585, likely the last successor of Python's workshop. The main faces of the larger pieces are framed by framing palmettes, with double palmettes on larger and more simple, single palmettes on smaller pieces. Apart from mythological scenes on his larger works, many works contain Dionysian scenes with the youthful Dionysus, almost always with curly hair falling above his shoulders and wearing an ivy wreath and carrying a thyrsus, watching or joining maenads and satyrs in their pursuits (see backs of the two signed vessels) . Among Python's most appealing pieces are the phlyax vases with depictions of the Greek comedies, played at the time in the colonies of Magna Graecia. Several pieces also show Dionysus or maenads holding theatrical masks, with the theatre an activity closely linked to Dionysus. The link to Dionysus is significant, as almost all of Python's works were found in the chamber tombs in and around Paestum, with the Dionysian theme of the youthful god giving immortality to those he loves (see Ariadne and Dionysus) to be seen in context with the hope of a happy afterlife <JPS>.

RVP: A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum. British School at Rome, 1987.

CGP: M. Denoyelle, La céramique grecque de Paestum, la Collection du Musée du Louvre. Louvre Editions, 2011.

JPS: N. Eschbach, W. Martini, K. Schauenburg, Bilder der Hoffnung: Jenseitserwartungen auf Prunkgefässen Süditaliens. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Lübeck, 1997