#and a colleague just pointing out the fact that it’s the ‘tadpole’ painter and shrugging apologetically

[aristoteliancomplacency]

I present to you the work of another painter of fish plates. Y’know how you use ‘scare quotes’ for various purposes, including indicating that you’re not actually sure about The Thing?

Well, this guy was so bad at whatever he was painting that we call him…

The ‘tadpole’ painter:

Here’s another example:

This one was sold as part of the Graham Geddes collection at Bonham’s auction house in 2008 for £2,040.

They describe it as ‘three fish including a wrasse with dorsal spines, an angler-fish, the rounded body with multiple black dots, two large round eyes with pupils, an open mouth with teeth bared, and a ray with pointed face, the body with multiple black dots’.

Which like… bold fucking move missing out the fact that they have legs. Though I can’t say I envy whoever had to write the description.

#first one is: #from ‘Greek red-figure fish-plates by Ian McPhee and A D Trendal #from the Macinagrossa collection in Bari #which I think is a private collection? #Trendall and McPhee refer to him as ‘a very minor artist’. #v rude. #imagine the auctioneer writing the description like ‘sooooo… uh. anyone know what this is supposed to be?’ #and a colleague just pointing out the fact that it’s the ‘tadpole’ painter and shrugging apologetically #because it was looted we do not know where it originally came from #(though many were found in tombs) #anyway. my personal head cannon - and I cannot emphasise enough that I have literally no evidence for this. it is just a flight of fancy #is that someone has to bring their child to work for a few days #and just let their kid play around and decorate plates that were write-offs for one reason or another #and some kid just sat their happily painting their crude little fish on these plates whilst their dad worked away #Fischteller #fish plates #tagamemnon