Sileno prigioniero nella bottega : mito e attualità nelle opere del Nikon Painter

The Nikon Painter is generally considered one of those minor figures that formed part of the large workshop of the Berlin Painter. This paper suggests that the craftsman was not only a painter, stylistically indebted to the Berlin Painter, but also a independent potter, primarily engaged in the production of lekythoi and neck-amphorae. The representation of the capture of Silenus on a lekythos, from Gela but today displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Syracuse, allows us to see in the work of the Nikon Painter clear rereferences to contemporary events, in particular to the Persian wars, which are read through the filter of the myth.