red-figure pottery

red-figure pottery
Type of Greek pottery that flourished from the late 6th to the late 4th century BC.

Developed in Athens с 530 BC, the red-figure pottery quickly overtook the older black-figure pottery as the preferred style of vase painting. In red-figure technique, the background was painted black, and the outline details on the figures were also painted (rather than incised) in black, but the rest of each figure was unpainted and so retained the orange-red colour of the natural vase. By comparison with incising, the painting of the details allowed more flexibility in rendering human form, movements, expressions, and perspective. Since most of the ornamentation was narrative, such technical advantages were of utmost importance.

Athenian red-figure cup, detail of a bearded reveler by the Brygos Painter, c. 490 BC; in ...

J.E. Bulloz

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▪ art
 type of Greek pottery that flourished from the late 6th to the late 4th century BC. During this period most of the more important vases were painted in this style or in the earlier, black-figure (black-figure pottery) style. In the latter, figures were painted in glossy black pigment in silhouette on the orange-red surface of the vase; details were added largely by incising. In the red-figure style, decoration was also outlined in black, but the background outside the outline was filled in with black, leaving the figures red. Details were painted rather than incised, thus allowing more flexibility in the rendering of human form, movements, and, above all, expressions and allowing scope for shading and a more satisfactory kind of perspective. Since most of the ornamentation on Greek pottery was narrative rather than purely decorative, such technical advantages were of utmost importance.

 Red-figure pottery can be roughly divided into two periods: the first from about 530 to 480 BC, the second from about 480 to 323 BC. In the early vases—the subjects of which included heroic and Dionysiac scenes as well as scenes from daily life—the details are added in black pigment or in dilutions of black that appear brown. The artists had mastered foreshortening and could convey the illusion of a third dimension without violating the two-dimensional surface of the vase. The figures were decorative rather than naturalistic. The most important artists from this period are Oltos, Epictetus, Euphronius, Euthymides, Onesimos, Douris, and the Brygos Painter. The vases characteristic of the second period are gaudier, with details added in white and sometimes in yellow-brown, gold, and blue. The subjects and treatment are often trivial and sentimental; and attempts at naturalism and depth perspective violated the intrinsic nature of the pottery shape, reducing the vessel to a mere support for the painting. By the end of this second period, the figured decoration of pottery, having become a declining art, died out in Attica.
 

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Red-figure pottery — Red figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 530 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC. It replaced the previously dominant style of Black figure vase… …   Wikipedia

  • GREEK RED FIGURE POTTERY —    A technique of pottery decoration invented in Athens about 525 BC. The technique involved the painting of an outline with added linear detail and the background filled with black, and was thus the reverse of Greek black figure pottery.… …   Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans

  • ETRUSCAN RED FIGURE POTTERY (CERAMICA A FIGURE ROSSE ETRUSCA) —    A local imitation of Greek red figure (red ground figures showing through from black surrounds), which follows the black figure toward the middle of the fifth century BC. Vulci, Orvieto, and later Falerii Veteres in the Faliscan area appear to …   Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans

  • Black-figure pottery — [ Athena wearing the aegis, Attic black figured hydria by the potter Panphaios (signed) and the Euphiletos Painter, c. 540 BC. Found in Toscanella, Cabinet des Médailles, BNF (Paris), De Ridder n°254] The black figure pottery (Greek,… …   Wikipedia

  • black-figure pottery — Type of Greek pottery that originated in Corinth с 700 BC. The figures were painted in black pigment on the natural red clay ground. Finishing details were then incised into the black pigment, revealing the red ground. The great Attic painters… …   Universalium

  • red-figure — ˈ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ adjective or red figured ˈ ̷ ̷| ̷ ̷ ̷ ̷ : of, relating to, or constituting a style of ceramic painting developed in Athens at the end of the 6th century B.C. in which the outer surfaces of the ware are covered in black except for… …   Useful english dictionary

  • red-figure — noun a type of ancient Greek pottery in which the background is painted black, leaving figures in the red colour of the clay. Compare with black figure …   English new terms dictionary

  • red-figure —    In later ancient Greek pottery, a technique in which red figures were silhouetted against a black background …   Glossary of Art Terms

  • GREEK BLACK FIGURE POTTERY —    A technique of pottery decoration first introduced in Corinth in about 700 BC, but best known from Attica and especially Athens from 575 until 490 BC. It involved the painting of a black silhouette of the figures on the base of preparatory… …   Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans

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