Sappho Painter

{{short description|Unidentified ancient Greek vase painter}}

File:Apollo Mousai Louvre L27.jpg lekythos attributed to the Sappho Painter depicting Achilles watching out for Polyxena. Louvre, Paris.]]

The Sappho Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active {{circa|510–490 BCE}}.

The artist's name vase is a kalpis depicting the poet Sappho, currently held by the National Museum, Warsaw (Inv. 142333). The hand of the Sappho Painter has been identified on 95 vessels, 70% of which are lekythoi. Their work has also been identified on tomb wall slabs and epinetra.

Nearly half of this artist's paintings are of the white-ground style. They apparently avoided the then-predominant red-figure technique, but sometimes used Six's technique whereby figures are laid on a black surface in white or red and details are incised so that the black shows through.Mommsen, Heide, "Sappho Painter", in: Brill's New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider They were influenced and possibly trained by the Edinburgh Painter,{{cite book|last= Reeder Williams|first=Ellen |title=The archaeological collection of the Johns Hopkins University|year= 1984|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0-8018-3050-1}} and shared a workshop with the Diosphos Painter.