The Leagros Group was a group of Attic

Attica

Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...

 black-figure vase painters active during the last two decades of the 6th century BC. The name given to the group by modern scholars is a conventional one, derived from a series of name vase

Name vase

In classical archaeology, a name vase is a specific "vase" whose painter's name is unknown but whose workshop style has been identified. The painter is conventionally named after the selected "name vase" that embodies his characteristic style, or for one of its distinctive painted subjects, or for...

s.

The Leagros Group was the final important group of Attic vase painters in the black-figure style to paint large-format images on vases. Their significance is so great that their time of activity is also known as the Leagros period. About 400 vases are ascribed to the group; most of them are hydria

Hydria

A hydria is a type of Greek pottery used for carrying water. The hydria has three handles. Two horizontal handles on either side of the body of the pot were used for lifting and carrying the pot. The third handle, a vertical one, located in the center of the other two handles, was used when...

I and neck amphorae, constituting about half of the group's surviving products. Additionally, they painted other types of amphora

Amphora

An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...

e, krater

Krater

A krater was a large vase used to mix wine and water in Ancient Greece.-Form and function:...

s, lekythoi

Lekythos

A lekythos is a type of Greek pottery used for storing oil , especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel. The lekythos was used for anointing dead bodies of unmarried men and many lekythoi are found in tombs. The images on lekythoi were often...

, and, in small amounts, some other shapes. The group's conventional name is derived from five vases with kalos-inscription

Kalos inscription

The Kalos inscription was a form of epigraph found on Attic vases and graffiti in antiquity, common between 550 and 450 BC, and usually found on symposion vessels. The word καλός means "beautiful"; here it had an erotic connotation, and the inscription took the form of a youth's name, in the...

s mentioning the ephebe

Ephebe

Greek ephebos ἔφηβος , anglicised as ephebe , or Latinate ephebus is the term for an adolescent male.Ephebe may refer to:...

 Leagros.
Hydriai by the group resemble those by the Antimenes Painter

Antimenes painter

The Antimenes Painter was an Attic vase painter of the black-figure style, active between circa 530 and 510 BC.The real name of the Antimenes Painter is not known; his current name is an archaeological convention. It is derived from the Kalos inscription on a hydria in Leyden. Of the 150 works...

, feature more widely flayed lips and shallower broader shoulders. The earlier animal frieze predella

Predella

A predella is the platform or step on which an altar stands . In painting, the predella is the painting or sculpture along the frame at the bottom of an altarpiece...

s and frame lines decorated with ivy leaves are know replaced by palmette

Palmette

The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has an extremely long history, originating in Ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art of most of Eurasia, often in forms that bear...

s with broad separate leaves. They are organised in rounded loops. Such patterns are rare in black-figure vase painting, but very popular in the red-figure style contemporary with the Leagros Group. At times, the Leagros Group painters used the white-ground technique

White Ground Technique

White-ground technique is a style of ancient Greek vase painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica.-Technique and style:...

 on the necks of their amphora, again a feature introduced by the Antimenes Painter. The decoration of their neck amphorae is also similar to his, but the vegetal ornaments on the necks are more carefully painted and the lotus

Lotus

- Botany :*Lotus , various botanical taxa*Lotus *Lotus Flower, Nelumbo nucifera- Motor cars :*Lotus Cars, a British motor vehicle manufacturer**Team Lotus, a British Formula One racing team that competed between 1954 and 1994...

 flowers look rather like celery stalks.

Their figural scenes, for the last time, demonstrate the power and complexity of the black-figure style. They include complex scenes with multiple figures, often overlapping. The incisions are forceful and clear, the depiction of anatomic detail is restrained. Additional colours are only used to a limited extent. Garment folds and patterns only occur rarely and in little detail. Thus, the Leagros Group artists demonstrate the strong points of the black-figure style, while the contemporaneous Pioneer Group

Pioneer Group

The Pioneer Group were a number of red-figure vase painters working in Kerameikos or the potters' quarter of Athens around the beginning of the 5th century BCE. Characterized by John Boardman as perhaps the first conscious art movement in the western tradition, the group comprised the painters...

 show the possibilities offered by the newly introduced red-figure technique, veritably indulging in details of anatomy and clothing. The Leagros Group achieved to adopt some of the innovations associated with the new technique within the limits of their style. Muscles and textiles are depicted in a reduced form. The small eyes of their figures are another striking feature. The group's artists profit particularly from innovations in terms of perspective and spatial depictions, although they use them rarely. All figures feature idealised proportions of body and facial expression. Compared to the figures by the Antimenes Painter, they appear quite sturdy. The group does not waste available space; its image fields are usually well filled. That they do not appear crammed is due to the compository talent of the painters. The compositions are balanced, convincing and full of tension. Sometimes, details extend beyond the margins of the pictorial field proper.
Within the group, several smaller sub-groups and individual painters can be identified, albeit with considerable difficulty, due to the very homogenous styles of the painters. The most significant individual artists are the Acheloos Painter

Acheloos Painter

The Acheloos Painter was an ancient Greek vase painter of the black-figure style. He received his name after a representation of the fight of the river god Acheloos and Heracles on Amphora F 1851 in the Berlin Antique collection.-Selected works:*Altenburg, Staatliches Lindenau-Museum*Basel,...

 and the Chiusi Painter

Chiusi Painter

The Chiusi Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active in the final quarter of the sixth century BC. His real name is now known.The Chiusi Painter was part of the so-called Leagros Group, the last major important group of painters in the black-figure style...

. The group favoured mythological

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 themes, especially scenes from the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

 and the adventures of Herakles. For example, the scene of Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

 and Ajax

Ajax (mythology)

Ajax or Aias was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus , he is called "Telamonian Ajax," "Greater...

 playing a board game is depicted several times. Some motifs were newly introduced by painters of the Leagros Group, others depicted and interpreted in new ways. Although similar changes took place in red-figure vase painting, the two developments should probably be seen as separate, in spite of the possibility of a degree of mutual influence. Leagros Group painters may have been active in the same workshops as Pioneer Group ones, as is suggested by the fact that the kalos name Leagros also occurs on vases by Euphronios

Euphronios

Euphronios was an ancient Greek vase painter and potter, active in Athens in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. As part of the so-called "Pioneer Group,"...

, Phintias

Phintias (painter)

Phintias was an ancient Greek vase painter; along with Euphronios and Euthymides, he was one of the most important representatives of the Pioneer Group of Athenian red-figure vase painters. Ten works from the period between 525 and 510 BC bearing his signature survive: seven vase paintings and...

 and Euthymides

Euthymides

Euthymides was an ancient Athenian potter and painter of vases, primarily active between 515 and 500 BC. He was a member of the Greek art movement later to be known as "The Pioneers" for their exploration of the new decorative style known as red-figure pottery...

. The links and mutual influences among the two groups remain disputed. John Boardman

John Boardman

Jack Melton Boardman, commonly known as John Boardman, is an American former professor of physics at Brooklyn College.- Academic career :...

sees them exist side-by-side, Heide Mommsen suggests a major degree of interaction.