Kleitias

{{Short description|Ancient Greek vase painter}}

Kleitias (Greek: Κλειτίας, sometimes rendered as KlitiasThe form Kleitias was firmly established by G. M. A. Richter, "A Stand by Kleitias and an Athenian Jug", in: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26.12, Part 1 (December 1931:289-294) esp. p. 290. In scholarly literature, it is often written Klitias (like on the François Vase) because the Ancient Greek diphthong ei is frequently rendered as i in post-antique transliterations of Ancient Greek words and names.) was an ancient Athenian vase painter of the black-figure style who flourished {{circa|570–560}} BCE. Kleitias' most celebrated work today is the François Vase ({{circa|570 BCE}}), which bears over two hundred figures in its six friezes. Painted inscriptions on four pots and one ceramic stand name Kleitias as their painter and Ergotimos as their potter,See J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford 1956) 76-78. showing the craftsmen's close collaboration.There is only one pot with an inscription naming Ergotimos as its potter which has not been attributed to Kleitias as a painter. See J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford 1956) 79-80. A variety of other fragments have been attributed to him on a stylistic basis.See the essential list in J. D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (Oxford 1956) 77-79. Examples found or attributed later include particularly D. von Bothmer, "A New Kleitias Fragment from Egypt", in: Antike Kunst 24, 1981, 66-67.