1. Archaic Pottery

2. Process for Black-figure vases
Levigation: purifying clay by letting impurities sink to the bottom
Wedging: kneading
Pulled on the potter’s wheel
Sections dried and joined with slip
Decorated
With slips containing pigments from metal
(black glaze); purple-red; white
Applied with brushes
Fired in kilns
In firing, the pots turned red and the painted parts black
Three stages, to oxidize, vitrify the black slip, and reoxidize the rest of the pot

3. Archaic Vase Painting Centers:
Corinth, Athens, Laconia, Chalchis, Boeotia, Aegean Islands
Corinth early leader; later Athens
Early Archaic painting influenced by the Corinthian style, itself Orientalizing

4. Archaic Ceramic Production

5. Archaic Potters and Painters
Potters: signature followed by some form of the verb “made” (
Painters: signature followed by some form of the verb “painted”
Sometimes these were the same person
Other methods of identification developed by Sir John Davidson Beazley
Through stylistic details
Painters named by attribution or by nicknames
After known potters with whom they worked (Amasis Painter)
After the place the vase was found
After the current location (Berlin painter)
After an owner (Burgon Painter)
After subjects (Niobid Painter)
After stylistic details (Elbows Out Painter)

6. Pottery Shapes

7. Early Archaic Vases 600-575: Sopholis: earliest known Attic painter
Animal friezes, Orientalizing
Sopholis: earliest known Attic painter
Signed 3 vases as painter, 1 as potter
Sophilos megraphsen
Dinos or Lebes (cauldron)
Animals, florals, purples, whites
Wedding feast of Peleus and Thetis

8. Attic black-figure Dinos and stand by Sophilos, c. 580
London, British Museum

9. Sophilos Dinos, wedding guests of Peleus and Thetis

10. François Vase, ca. 570
Found 1845 by Alessandro François at Chiusi in Etruria (Italy)
Shattered 1900 and restored
New Shape: Volute Krater
Ergotimos potter: signed twice
Kleitias painter: signed twice
One frieze of animals: sphinxes, griffins; all other friezes of myth:
Neck
Calydonian boar hunt
Funeral games for Patroklos
Theseus’ victory dance (geranos) with Athenian boys and girls
Lapiths and Centaurs
Body:
Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Achilles chasing Troilos at Troy
Return of Hephaistos
Handles:
Gorgon
Artemis with animals
Ajax carrying dead Achilles
Foot: Fight of the Cranes and Pygmies

11. François Vase: Attic black-figure volute krater, by Kleitias and Ergotimos, ca. 470
Started with Contours
Filled in with black
Used precise incision
Used architecture for locales, separate compositions
Profile, ¾ figures, frontal views
Shows movement
Model of draftsmanship
Mythological storehouse
Florence, Archaeological Museum

12. François Vase, side 2

13. Amasis Painter,
Signed 8 vases as potter; thought also to be painter
Signed other vases for Lydos, a painter
Hellenized form of Egyptian Ahmosis
Prefers Belly Amphora, though others also
Both pottery and painting are of exceptional quality
Bold use of color and pattern
Precise rendering of armor and clothing
Symmetrical
Dionysos is favorite subject

14. Attic black-figure amphora, Amasis Painter, c. 540-530
Dionysos and Maenads
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

15. Attic black-figure olpe, by the Amasis painter, ca. 550-530.
Herakles presented to the Olympians by Athena
Paris, Musée du Louvre

16. Amasis Painter Olpe, detail
Detail of clothing, armor; use of color; symmetry
Hermes
Athena

17. Exekias: Archaic black-figure master
Influenced by Group E painters and potters
Exekias also an influential potter
Perhaps responsible for the early development of Type A cup and Type A belly amphora
May have invented he calyx krater
Signature: Exekias egraphse ka’poiese me
Characteristics:
Precision
Dignity of figures
Detail of armor, manes, drapery
Originality:
First to paint ships around dinoi
Elegant forms of heroes and horses
Method of showing emotion
The divine in the human: new in the art of any people

18. Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias, c. 540.
Ajax prepares for suicide
Boulogne, Musée des Beaux Arts

19. Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias, ca. 540-530
Achilles killing Penthesileia
London, British Museum

20. Exekias Achilles and Penthesileiadetail

21. Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias, c. 540-530.
Ajax and Achilles playing a board game
Vatican, Gregorian Etruscan Museum

22. Exekias, Ajax and Achilles, detail

24. Attic black-figure kylix, made by Exekias, c. 530. Dionysos on a boat
Munich, Museum Antikes Kleinkunst

25. Exekias Dionysos, rim
Eye-Cup

26. Corinthian Pottery In competition with Athens
Exekias amphora with Ajax and Achilles found in Etruria (Italy)
Athenians trading more heavily with W Greeks
Corinthians eventually could not compete
Examples:
Krater by the Three Maidens Painter, c. 560
Column krater with Boar Hunt, c.575

27. Corinthian black-figure Column Krater, c. 575
Toledo Museum of Art

28. Laconian Pottery S Peloponnese, chief city Sparta
Most for local consumption
Some exported to Taras, colony of Sparta
High-stemmed, deep bowled cup
Decorated interiors
Examples:
Laconian black-figure cup, by the Arkesilas Painter, c. 560
Laconian black-figure cup by the Hunt Painter, c. 550

29. Laconian black-figure cup, by the Hunt Painter, c. 550
Paris, Musée du Louvre

30. Cup by the Hunt Painer, detail

31. Chalkidian Pottery From Rhegium in Italy Wrote inscriptions in Greek
Comparable to Athenian black-figure
Precise, elegant, energetic

32. Chalkidian black figure krater, c. 450
Chalkidian black figure krater, c Helen, Paris, Andromache, Hektor
Martin von Wagner Museum, University of Würzburg

33. Attic Red Figure Reverse of Black-Figure
Outline and details are now brush-drawn
Brush allows for greater representationalism than incision
Motion, ¾ views, foreshortening, natural expression
No added color
Invented by the painter of the Andokides Potter, called the Andokides Painter
Begins with “bilingual pots”:
One side black-figure
One side red-figure

34. Attic bilingual amphora, Andokides’ workshop, 520
Attic bilingual amphora, Andokides’ workshop, Herakles driving a bull
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

35. Attic bilingual amphora, Andokides, c. 525-520
Attic bilingual amphora, Andokides, c Ajax and Achilles play a board game

36. Attic bilingual amphora,attributed to the Andokides Painter, ca. 525
Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlung

37. Red-figure Pioneers Euphronios Euthymides
Experimented with body in motion
Consummate artists
Favorite subjects:
Heroic actions
Symposia

38. Attic Red-figure Calyx-Krater, by Euphronios, 515. Death of Sarpedon
Hypnos, Thanatos, Hermes, Sarpedon
NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art

39. Death of Sarpedon, detail of Hypnos and Hermes

40. Detail of Sarpedon and Thanatos

41. Attic red-figure amphora by Euthymides, c. 510. Revelers
Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen

42. Later Archaic Attic painters
Berlin painter
Douris
Brygos painter
Simple, elegant designs
Often Dionysiac scenes

43. Attic red-figured volute krater, attributed to the Berlin painter, Achilles fighting Hektor, Memnon
London, British Museum

44. Attic red-figured cup, attributed to the Brygos Painter, 490-480.
London, British Museum

45. Attic red-figure cup, made by Brygos, c. 480. Greeks vs Trojans
Paris, Musée du Louvre

46. Attic red-figure cup, made by Kalliades, painted by Douris, 490-480.
Paris, Musée du Louvre

47. Douris, Eos and Memnon, details

48. Sources John Griffiths Pedley, Greek Art and Archaeology
John Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases
John Boardman, Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Archaic Period
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
British Museum
Musée du Louvre
Vatican Museums
Bruce Hartzler, Univ. of Texas, Greek Archaeology Survey (images, maps, site plans)
Foundation of the Hellenic World (maps, images)
Dr. Kenneth Sams, UNC-CH, Archaeology of Greece (images)
Archaic Art