Potter's Studio of Archaic Greece

Black and Red Figure Ware

Individual Artwork (click on picture for analysis)

I. Historical Context (by Araceli Ortiz)

            With the invention of the Potter’s Wheel by the Minoans around c.1700 BC, production of pottery became the main technical advancement. It provided the formation of thinner wall, standardized sizes and subtler shapes. Greek Pottery is one of the most magnificent pieces of art work that demonstrates a development of pictorial art and portrays intrinsic beauty of its form and decoration. The pottery was a great piece of evidence that art historians would look at to analyze the Greek’s continued process of drawing 3-dimensional objects and figures on flat or curved surfaces. The range of color on the pottery depended greatly on the technology of firing on clay pottery. Colors such as black, white, red, and yellow were of the most common. There is quite number of surviving Greek pottery due to the great mass production of them. Ancient Greek pots were of everyday use; they were mainly used to store, transport, and drink fluids such as water, wine and perfume for the smaller pottery.

            There are three main periods of time that demonstrate the development and progress of pottery art in ancient Greece. The first is the Geometric Period, which lasted from 1000 to 700BC. During this period, the pots were decorated mostly with abstract art. Pots were fully adorned in fine patterns of circles and arcs. There is a great usage of geometric shapes, hence the name of the period, to draw and form animals and figures that were shown in profile. Pots were broken down into horizontal zones or strips across the vase to keep every detail symmetric. In this time period, Greek art begins its journey into narrating many of the Greek popular myths and stories, Heracles, for the most part, was of most interest. 

            During the late 8^th and early centuries BC, great trading flourished in the Greek mainland and there was a continued increase in the standard of living due to foreign trade. The growth of trade allowed for Eastern influences on ancient Greek art. The Greeks learned and took over the Corinthians black-figure pottery technique, in which figures are painted with black gaze and thin lines scratched out in order to show the detail of the faces, arms and patterns on the pot. The method of painting such figures was achieved through a three-stage process of firing. At the beginning of this time period, figures mostly consisted of monsters, fantastic and exotic animals such as the sphinx, siren, griffin, lions and chimaeras. As the black figure was more fully established by the Athenians, the emphasis switched to human figures. Numerous pottery centers developed in places such as Corinth and eastern Greece regions; however, Athens prevailed as the dominant center for Greek Pottery in the Mediterranean Sea. It was also during this time that painters and potters began to sign their names on these pots.

            Around 530 BC, Athens formed a new style, which is much like the black figure but reversed, called the red-figure pottery technique. In this method, the detailed portion, such as the face, arms, and patterns were decorated in black, leaving the figure in the light background color. This technique quickly emerged and became favorite among the Greeks because it portrayed the human figures in a more naturalistic and aesthetically-sound way. The background fit more into the skin color of humans and figures began to change from profile views into ¾ frontal poses. The art demonstrated much of Greek life, myths and heroes. Expressions and gestures begin to form along with mood, character and the capacity for action.

            With the death of Pericles and the end of the Age of Pericles around 430BC, the Greek pottery begins to tone down. Drawings and figures were not drawn with passion as before; naturalism was not portrayed as much. And by 320BC, pottery in Athens had died out.

II. Cultural Influences (by Zachary Steadman)

            The Greeks have always had their investigation on perfection on both their art and architecture and worked with it to reflect it in their works. Everything they built had to look and be perfect. Their black- and red- figure ware is an example of how Greeks portrayed that investigation into their art. In the black-figure ware, they would paint the characters, either mortals or gods, in black paint or glaze and then, with a special tool, they would scrape off the paint and engrave the detail. This detail helped to make the human figure look perfect and reflect how the body works. The Greek culture was known because of this search for perfection; therefore, their art reflected this ideal by making the paintings as detailed as possible. With the red figure ware they would paint the vases red and then would put black glazed on top, finally doing the same steps as if they were doing the black figure ware. They would also scrap of the glaze which would leave a better detailed and more improved look to the vases. The Greeks, by doing this, proved to themselves that there is always room for perfection.

            Their techniques changed from black to red figure ware because of their constant search for perfection. Their vases and their paintings also influenced the Greek culture. Their figure wares became so close to the culture and idealisms that the Greeks prospered and were admired because of their works. The Greeks became well known because of their investigation and their way of portraying it into their arts and culture itself.

            Another way to look at how the culture influenced the Greek’s art is what stories they told on the vases. The Greeks would paint their gods and goddesses to tell the myths of what the gods would do, the powers that each god had, and the explanation of how the gods played a role in nature. Also, it is shown that the Greeks were obsessed with the human body, naming each placement of the handles with body part names i.e. the lip, the shoulder, the neck and belly. These parts, among others, were just a few things of what the Greeks focused on, perfecting their art of statue making.

III. Subject and Style (by Kristine Torres)

At first, the Greeks started out by painting animal figures in running friezes around their pottery[1]. Along with the animal figures, they also used basic geometric shapes and patterns to decorate the handles and to line the friezes. Then as the artists advanced, they began to paint more detailed scenes with more meaning. Being great storytellers, the well-known subjects of most Greek pottery, specifically black and red-figure ware, were that of gods and heroes. The most popular subject to be depicted on pottery at this time was Herakles, displaying many of his battles and defeats. Like Herakles, pottery displaying other heroes and gods did not only portray them on the battlefield, but also at their leisure. It was just as interesting to see the heroes playing a game as it was to see them showing off their strength. As time passed, artists eventually began to show everyday events, such as weddings and other simple accounts. In the illustration of such events, the vase made it exclusively clear as to how the pottery was to be used. For example, a vase depicting Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, would be used as a wine vase. Subjects like those previously mentioned, began to evolve from a very simple theme to something a bit more ornate and specific to their purpose.

There were many shapes and sizes that the black and red-figure ware were made in. The most common forms were the hydria, lekythos, krater, amphora, and kylix, all of which served very different purposes. The hydria had three handles for the purpose of a water jar. The lekythos had a narrow neck and served as an ail flask. The krater had a wide lip and was used as a mixing bowl. The amphora had the standard two handles and was used for storage. Lastly, the kylix, a drinking vase, was shallower than the rest and had two planes for decoration. The two planes were the inside and outside, allowing the drinker the option of enjoying the decorations found inside while drinking from it. In correlation with its function, the different parts of the vase were essential to the description of the pottery. Made up of names pertaining to human body parts, such as the lip, neck, shoulder and belly, these parts were directly related to the function and location of the human body part it was named after. Defined by its shape and size, the design of each object was essential to the function of the vase. 

The subject and shape of Greek pottery make up the style of such art. Such a combination plus the use of black and red-figure painting made a distinct style that is very characteristic of Greek art. Artists took such subjects and used their given tools to develop the red and black-figure into a mass produced product of the time. That is why there are so many examples out there of this style.

IV. Materials and Processes (by Adriana Huerta)

            Between the 6^th and 4^th century B.C., black and red figure techniques were used in Athens to decorate fine pottery. The techniques that the Greeks used in order to shape and decorate their vases required great deal of skills that were obtained over many years. The first step in manufacturing a Greek vase was removing all the impurities found in the natural clay. By removing all the dirt and air bubbles, the clay would become more flexible. After the purification of the clay, the clay would be shaped into a vase on a horizontal rotating wheel. The making process required two people: 1) the apprentice, who would turn the wheel by hand and 2) the potter, who would pull the clay up with his fingers until the preferred shape was achieved. The handles were shaped separately and attached to the vase later on once it was completed. After the vase was finished, a specialist, the painter, would be called in to decorate the work.

            In black-figure vase painting, the figures and decorations were applied with a slip that turned black during firing, while the background was left to the original color of the clay. Vase painters expressed the individual forms by incising the slip or by adding white and purple mixtures of pigment and clay. The decorative themes on the red-figure vases remained the color of the clay while the background, filled in with a slip, turned black. The red figure technique later on replaced the black figure when painters recognized the simplicity that came with drawing forms, as opposed to the difficulty delineating figures with incisions. In addition, the use of the brush in the red figure technique was a better way to represent the naturalistic anatomy, clothing and emotions of the particular scenery.  

            The firing process of both the red and black figure vases consisted of three stages. The first was known as the oxidizing stage, where air was allowed into the kiln, turning the whole vase into color of the clay. In the second stage, “green wood was introduced into the chamber and the oxygen supply was reduced, causing the object to turn black in the smoky environment”[2]. In the final stage, air was introduced once again into the kiln and the kept portions turned back to orange while the glossed areas remained black.

 V. Works Cited (by Steven Lee)

Kleiner, Fred S., and Mamiya, Christin J. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Vol. 1. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education, 2006.

 

 Lahanas, Michael. “The Francois volute krater.” 30, April 2006 <http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Francois.htm>.

 

Pedley, John Griffiths. Greek Art and Archaeology. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1993.

 

“Aegisthus Painter.” n. d. The J. Paul Getty Trust. 6 May 2006 <http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=15048>.

 

“Athenian Vase Painting: Red- and Black-Figure Techniques.” n. d. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vase/hd_vase.htm>.

 

“Greek pottery.” Encyclopædia Britannica. n. d. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 1 May 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037929>.

 

“Malibu 88.AE.66” n. d. The Vase Catalog, Tufts University. 6 May 2006 <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vaseindex?entry=Malibu+88.AE.66>.

 

“Pottery of Ancient Greece.” Wikipedia. n. d. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 1 May 2006 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_pottery >.

 

“Red-Figure Calyx Krater.” n. d. The J. Paul Getty Trust. 6 May 2006 <http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=533>.

site created on 5.10.06 by Steven Lee