Nicosthenes ( other Greek: Νικοσθένης ) is a famous ancient Greek potter whose workshop worked from 545 to 510. BC e. in Athens . Nicosthenes' signature - “Nicosthenes did this” - is one of the most common pottery signatures in antiquity : it was found on 139 black-figured and 10 red-figured vessels.
Of particular importance are the “Nikostenovskie Amphora”, which repeat the shape of the Etruscan bukker . There are about 130 of them preserved. Most of them are made by Nicosthenes, several of them, despite his signature, are attributed to his workshop. The vases of Nikosthenes were painted mainly by one vase-painter, and so far it has not been established whether it was Nikosthenes himself. The unknown vase painter received the name Vasosphere painter Nicosthenes or Vase painter N. It should not be confused with a vase painter named Nicosthenes .
Potter Nicosthenes mainly created small vessels, paying great attention to the search for new forms and being inspired by patterns that came from the borders of Attica . A creative search led Nicosthenes to new artistic techniques: he used the so-called Sixx technique in the image of figures of red-brown or white color on glossy clay. Nicosthenes also worked with vase painters such as Lidos , Oltos , Epictetus and Nicosthenes . All these vase-painters also painted vases of the potter Pamphai , the younger colleague of Nicosthenes, copying his ceramics. Many of these unsigned copies are difficult to distinguish from Nicosthenes' works.
Almost all the amphoras of Nicosthenes’s work were exported to Cerveteri and the Vulci . Nicosthenes vases are almost never found outside Etruria . The imitation of the style of buccero speaks about the commercial vein of Nicosthenes.
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