Chapter 10 - 6

06 Art History

Red and Black Figure Pottery in Ancient

Much of what we know of ancient Greek civilization has been learned from studying their pottery.

The durable vessels created by the ancient Greeks were often decorated with scenes from daily life, giving scholars insight into their culture.

The two most recognized forms of ancient Greek pottery are black figure pottery and red figure pottery.

Both share similarities and differences in their artistic designs.

The black figure technique developed around the 7th century BCE.

At the beginning of the process, reddish brown clay was shaped into the desired form and then brushed with a glaze where shading was needed for the design.

The glaze was produced with the same clay used to make the vessel and ground into a fine paste using alkaline water.

Decorations were then painstakingly incised into the clay using sharp, wooden tools.

Black figure pottery featured elaborate geometric patterns and narrative decorations depicting battle scenes, mythological subjects, animal motifs, and legendary episodes.

Figures were often shown in flat silhouette.

Images had to be spaced out to ensure they did not overlap, or else they would blend together and become unrecognizable after the firing process.

Once the design was completed, the pottery would be placed in the kiln.

Using air vents, artisans manipulated the amount of oxygen allowed in the kiln.

More oxygen would keep the reddish brown color, and less oxygen would result in grays and blacks.

When the kiln was at its hottest temperature, a piece of green wood would be inserted into the chamber.

The wood would create carbon monoxide, which reacted with the iron in the clay.

The kiln vents would be opened to let in oxygen, allowing the unglazed portions of the vessel to return to their natural reddish brown color.

The glazed parts would remain black due to the combination of the glaze and iron.

These two compounds together blocked the oxygenation that would have turned exposed areas back into their original reddish brown color.

The red figure technique developed around 530 BC.

It used a reverse firing process from the black figure method.

This more advanced technique allowed for painting on the vessel using brushes rather than incising designs into the clay.

The red figure technique offered more possibilities for artistic images, since smaller details could now be made.

Figures first were outlined in a liquid glaze, and then contours and inner lines were added.

However, since the paint color only appeared during kiln firing, artists had to work from memory to ensure hundreds of invisible lines ended at the right points to prevent overlapping of the intricate detail work.

Since features could be outlined in black, red figure pottery allowed for three-quarter profiles and a more detailed rendering of anatomical details, such as individual fingers or the curved outline of an ankle bone.

With this technique, each figure had a natural silhouette against the black background.

This meant that overlapping designs could be painted, allowing for more elaborate compositions and giving a more natural look that suggested movement.

Black figure and red figure pottery both usually depicted popular themes in Ancient Greek art such as battles, mythological stories, and heroic deeds.

Both also contained a dramatic contrast between the image and the background.

However, the rendering of the designs on the pottery contained many differences.

Black figure pottery used many geometric patterns in its design for borders and on clothing.

However, red figure pottery did not, favoring a simpler look.

The overlapping technique used in red figure pottery allowed for more elaborate compositions, whereas if images overlapped in black figure pottery, they were likely to resemble a black blob after firing was completed.

The biggest contrast of all seems to be the detail that red figure pottery allowed in its depiction of human features, emotion, and movement.

Because of this ability to create more natural images (unlike the static, two-dimensional, black figure technique), the red figure technique is considered the height of Ancient Greek pottery.

Soon after the advent of the red figure technique, the black figure technique was rarely used.

By 450 BCE, just eighty years after the invention of the red figure technique, very little new pottery was being produced.

Despite much speculation, no definite reason exists to explain why.

However, it is believed that over 100,000 intact vessels from Ancient Greece have survived to the present day, serving as the majority of painting examples from that time.

These functional art objects not only convey information about the artistic ability of the Ancient Greeks, but they also provide clues about their culture as a whole.