The painted inscriptions on the Attic vases may be divided into three classes: (1) those relating to the whole vase and its purpose, such as artists’ signatures; (2) those relating to the designs on the vase, i.e. explanatory inscriptions, and those found on Panathenaic amphorae; (3) those which stand in no direct relation to the vase, such as the so-called “love-names” or “pet-names,” and interjections such as “hail,” “drink deep,” etc. The incised inscriptions have already been discussed.
The artists’ signatures first call for consideration. In relation to their works they are fully discussed elsewhere (Chapters [IX]., [X].), but the present may be regarded as a convenient opportunity for some general outline of the style and palaeography of these inscriptions.
Klein in his Meistersignaturen (2nd edn.) reckons a total of ninety-five signatures, a number which has probably been largely increased since he wrote in 1887. These names he finds distributed over some 424 vases, one name, that of Nikosthenes, occurring on no fewer than seventy-seven; he divides them into four classes, as follows: (1) masters in the B.F. method; (2) masters combining the two methods; (3) masters in the R.F. method (including S. Italy vases); (4) masters whose names appear on vases without subjects. These four classes are not mutually exclusive, as names in (1) and (3) appear again in (2) and (4).
The form which the signature takes is usually (1)—
ὁ δεῖνα ἐποίησεν (of the potter);
or (2)—
ἔγραψεν (of the painter);
or (3), the two combined, either under one name, as—
Ἐξηκίας ἔγραψε κἀποιησέ με;
or (4), with separate names, as on the François vase—