Red Figure Greek Ceramics
Attic red figure vases were exported throughout greece and beyond.
Red figure greek ceramics. The two ancient greek pottery techniques utilize a similar approach as far as creating the vase and bringing out the desired figures during firing. Geometric art in greek pottery was contiguous with the late dark age and early archaic greece which saw the rise of the orientalizing period. The pottery produced in archaic and classical greece included at first black figure pottery yet other styles emerged such as red figure pottery and the white ground technique. Red figure pottery consists of red images against a black background while black figure pottery consists of black pictures against the naturally red color of the vase.
The style is characterized by drawn red figures and a painted black background. Red figure pottery grew in popularity and by the early 5th century bce it had all but replaced black figure pottery as the predominant pottery type in athens. The eumenides painter was so named because of his topic the oresteia. In contrast the decorative motifs on red figure vases remained the color of the clay.
Red figure pottery was the. Red figure pottery is a style of greek vase painting that was invented in athens around 530 bce. The last recorded examples of attic red figure pottery are. Pottery painters in greek colonized southern italy followed the red figure attic pottery model and expanded on it beginning in the mid fifth century b c.
Details of the figures such as eyes and interior lines were painted on in black the brush allowing more subtle characterization than did an incising tool. Only few centres of pottery production could compete with athens in terms of innovation quality and production capacity. For a long time they dominated the market for fine ceramics. Etruria became an important centre of production outside the greek world.
Figures could be articulated with glaze lines or dilute washes of glaze applied with a brush. In the latter figures were painted in glossy black pigment in silhouette on the orange red surface of the vase. It replaced the previously dominant style of black figure vase painting within a few decades. Red figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural greek vase painting.
Red figure pottery type of greek pottery that flourished from the late 6th to the late 4th century bce during this period most of the more important vases were painted in this style or in the earlier black figure style. Its modern name is based on the figural depictions in red colour on a black background in contrast to the preceding. Red figure pottery invented at athens about 530 bce is just the reverse of the black figure style in that the reddish figures appear light against the black background of the pot surface. The red figure technique was invented around 530 b c quite possibly by the potter andokides and his workshop.
The background filled in with a slip turned black. Details were added largely by incising.