Notes on the attribution of Attic vases: the Gela Painter’s production

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th Century, J. D. Beazley cast the definite foundations to the attribution methodology of Attic vases. Throughout the years, the ceramic vases were linked to the hands of artists conventionally named, as the Gela Painter, an Attic artist who worked in Athens from the end of the 6th Century to the middle of the 5th Century B.C., thus named because the larger amount of his vases was found in Sicily, especially in Gela. Over 350 vases were linked to this painter, attributed in many ways to his own hands, his manner and his workshop. However, some of these attributions have been presented in an imprecise or, in fact, mistaken way. We systematize and correct them, in order to comprehend this artist’s production fully, inserted on the context of the Attic ceramic production of his period.