Cleitias

or Kleitias or Clitias

flourished с 580–550 BC, Greece

Greek vase painter and potter.

An outstanding master of the Archaic period, he executed the decorations on the François Vase (с 570 BC), discovered in 1844 in an Etruscan tomb. Painted in the black-figure style (see black-figure pottery), the large vase, signed and decorated with more than 200 figures, is among the greatest treasures of Greek art. Other vases and fragments attributed to him are in the Acropolis Museum, Athens.

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▪ Greek artist

also spelled  Clitias 

flourished c. 580–550 BC

      Athenian vase painter and potter, one of the most outstanding masters of the Archaic period, the artist of the decorations on the François Vase. This vase, a volute krater painted in the black-figure style, is among the greatest treasures of Greek (Greek pottery) art. Dating from c. 570 BC, it was discovered in 1844 in an Etruscan tomb near Chiusi and named after its discoverer; it is now in the Museo Archeologico at Florence.

      More than 200 figures are found among the six friezes (painted on superimposed zones) that decorate the vase's surface. In content alone, the François Vase is an encyclopaedia of the epic themes popular during the Archaic period. The vase is signed “Ergotimos epoiēsen; Cleitias egraphsen” (“Ergotimos made [me]; Cleitias painted [me]”).

      Cleitias' signature has been found on five vases. Four of these, like the François Vase, are signed by Cleitias as painter and Ergotimos as potter. Among them is a small stand, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Also from the hands of the two masters in collaboration are two cups and some cup fragments now in London, from which most of the signatures have been lost.

      Other vases and fragments of other vases have been attributed to Cleitias on the basis of style, most of them now in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

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