Nearchos was an 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...

 potter and vase painter of the black figure style

Black-figure pottery

Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic is one of the most modern styles for adorning antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BC...

, active in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 circa 570 to 555 BC.
In some stylistic terms, especially his fine drawings, Nearchos seems closely connected to the Painter of Acropolis 606

Painter of Acropolis 606

The Attic artist known by the convetional name '’'Painter of Acropolis 606’’’ was a black-figure vase painter, active around 570-560 BC.His name vase is a dinos discovered on the Athenian Acropolis and now on display in the National Museum at Athens . On its main frieze, it depicts a battle between...

. Unlike his comteporaries, he achieved figures with a striking sense of dignity, comparable to those painted much later by Exekias

Exekias

Exekias was an ancient Greek vase-painter and potter, who worked between approximately 550 BC - 525 BC at Athens. Most of his vases, however, were exported to other regions of the Mediterranean, such as Etruria, while some of his other works remained in Athens. Exekias worked mainly with a...

. Especially striking is a kantharos

Kantharos

A kantharos or cantharus is a type of Greek pottery used for drinking. It is characterized by its high swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot.The god Dionysus had a kantharos which was never empty....

, probably both shaped and painted by Nearchos, which depicts 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....

 harnessing his horses. Kantharoi were one of his favourite shapes. He signed them as both potter and painter. He also introduced some innovations, such as the attempt to render a horse’s body in white paint. Not all his experiments can be considered successful.
A further vessel that exemplifies his artistic mastery is an aryballos

Aryballos

An aryballos was a small spherical or globular flask with a narrow neck used in Ancient Greece. It was used to contain perfume or oil, and is often depicted in vase paintings as being used by athletes bathing...

ij the Corinthian style, decorated with a frieze of pygmies

Pygmy

Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...

 and cranes

Common Crane

The Common Crane , also known as the Eurasian Crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes.It is a large, stately bird and a medium-sized crane at 100–130 cm long, with a 180–240 cm wingspan and a weight of 4.5–6 kg...

 along the rim. Strikingly, the vessel is less than 8cm tall and the frieze only covers a fraction of its surface. Nerachos also produced Little-master cups.