Existing comment:
Greek
Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Bowl), 330-310 BC
In Greek and Roman religion, offerings were made to the gods prior to most undertakings. Here a warrior prepared to depart for war while a woman pours out a libation (liquid offering). The woman's headdress and the feathers on the warrior's helmet are native Italic attire, not Greek, which suggests that the vase was made for the native market.
The Black and the Red: Painting Techniques of Greek Vases:
Most Greek vases are classified on the basis of the technique used to paint them.
The black-figure technique consisted of painting figures with slip (diluted clay) on the surface of a vase and incising details into it; when the vase was fired, the slip turned black in contrast with the (usually) reddish unpainted background. Though beautiful and highly-elaborate scenes could be rendered in black-figure, the technique was not adequate for showing over-lapping figures, perspective, or foreshortening (e.g., of the horse heads on Zeus's throne on the Birth of Athena vase).
The red-figure technique, which arose in Athens around 530 BC, was the reverse: most of the vase was painted with slip and the figures were left unpainted save for the details, which were panted rather than incised. The red-figure technique proved far more flexible for rendering subtle effects, such as the sense of depth in the tableau of Ge giving Erichthonios to Athena in the Birth of Erichthonios vase. Additional colors (e.g. white, yellow, or purple) were sometimes added to both black- and red-figure vases. |