General: A highly regarded art form in ancient Greece. Decorated pottery was prized, collected and used in the daily life of most Greeks from the 10^th C BC to the 3^rd C BC. Unique because the shape of the pot was specified by its function and the choice of the decoration was often based on its use. Specific shapes of the pots were established early (by the 8^th C BC). The evolution of the decorations on the pots establishes the chronology:

            Geometric 1000-700 BC

            Black -Figure 700-550 BC

            Red-Figure 530-330 BC

            White Ground 580-330 BC

Shapes: The use of the vase dictated its shape and name and the shape indicated the method of construction. Most specific forms involved serving and drinking wine.

-Most of the work was wheel thrown. Larger and more complicated pieces were thrown in sections, joined while leather-hard and then trimmed with a metal or wooden rib.

-The pots were decorated with clay slip with a high percentage of iron oxide.

-When fired in the kiln with lots of oxygen, the clay and slip fired dark red, the kiln temperature was then raised and the atmosphere was reduced and the whole pot turned black. The temperature was then lowered and oxygen was re introduced. The slip trapped the carbon and stayed black while the rest of the pot turned back to red.

Decorative styles:

                Geometric 1000-700BC  (Dipylon Funeral Amphora, 9thC BC)
                    -Found throughout Greece
                    -Forms for specific uses of pottery were established.
                    -Referred to as "geometric" because of the geometric decorations such as the "Greek Key" or the "Meander"
                      were placed in bands around the surface of the pot.
                    -Most were light colored clay with iron oxide slip decorations
                    -Along with the usual pottery shapes were huge funeral kraters and amphora. Simple, stylized figures were
                      introduced in the bands depicting funerals and soldiers.

                Black Figure 700-550 BC.

                               Corinth -Major pottery center in 7^th C.
                                            -Invented the black figure technique with incised lines
                                            -Cream colored clay with black and red stripe
                                            -Mostly friezes of animals - lions, bulls, griffins
                                Athens - Became the dominant pottery center in Greece in the 6^th C.
                                            - Used the black figure technique on red clay
                                            -Characterized by an interest in the human figure to show stories from
                                            -mythology and contempory events
                                            -Work of individual potters recognized by signatures and unique styles
                                             (Dionysos in a Boat, black figure kylix by Exekias, 520 BC

                Red Figure 530 - 330 BC
                    -Invented by the Andokides Painter about 530 BC (Folsom, p.35)
                    -Figures were natural clay color, background was black "glaze".
                    -"Spotlighted" the figures
                    -Interior lines of figures were painted instead of incised (like black figure) permitting softer line quality.
                    -Subject on vases more from everyday life
                    -No portraits, idealized proportions.
                     -Fewer painters and potters now signed their name.

            White Ground 580-330 BC
                        -Polychrome painting on a white slip background.
                              -influenced by paintings of muralists, closer to wall and panel painting
                              -light background, outline of figures and use of a variety of colors.
 
                        580 -475 BC
                               -White used on faces of women and for some detail on Black Figure vases
                               - Experimental use by Red Figure painters.

                         475-450 BC
                                -Various Red Figure painters use white ground on small pryxis, kylix and the lekythos for home use
                                - Used brown diluted outlines and solid areas were filled in.

                        450-430 BC
                                -White ground shoulder lekythos became the dominant new vase form.
                                -Was used exclusively for funerals.
                                - More use of colors, some colors were painted on after firing, making it impractical for daily use
                                -Subject relating to funerals and the grave.
                                -the use of white ground on lekythos died out at the end of the 5^th C BC

Bibliography:

Andronicos, Manolis, National Museum, Athens: 1992

Boardman, John, Athenian Black Figure Vases, New York: 1974

Boardman, John, Early Greek Vase Painting, New York: 1998

Cooper, Emmanuel, A History of World Pottery: 1991

Folsom, Robert, S., Attic Red-Figured Pottery, Park ridge: 1976.

Noble, Joseph Veach, The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery, London: 1988

Sparkes, Brian, Greek Pottery, New York: 1991

Williams, Dyfri, Greek Vases, Cambridge: 1985

Required Reading:

Cooper, Ten Thousand Years of Pottery pp. 39-46

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/vase_menu.htm