Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it, it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society. The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were several vessels produced locally for everyday and kitchen use, yet finer pottery from regions such as Attica was imported by other civilizations throughout the Mediterranean, such as the Etruscans in Italy. There were a multitude of specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery.
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic, is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BCE. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.
Red-figure pottery is a style of ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay.
The Kleophrades Painter is the name given to the anonymous red-figure Athenian vase painter, who was active from approximately 510–470 BC and whose work, considered amongst the finest of the red-figure style, is identified by its stylistic traits.
A lekythos is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip; the oinochoe is more like a modern jug. In the "shoulder" and "cylindrical" types which became the most common, especially the latter, the sides of the body are usually vertical by the shoulder, and there is then a sharp change of direction as the neck curves in; the base and lip are normally prominent and flared. However, there are a number of varieties, and the word seems to have been used even more widely in ancient times than by modern archeologists. They are normally in pottery, but there are also carved stone examples.
The Achilles Painter was a vase-painter active ca. 470–425 BC. His name vase is an amphora, Vatican 16571, in the Vatican museums depicting Achilles and dated 450–445 BC. An armed and armored Achilles gazes pensively to the right with one hand on his hip. The other hand holds a spear. On the opposite surface a woman performs libation.
Six's technique is the modern name for a technique used by Attic black-figure vase painters that involves laying on figures in white or red on a black surface and incising the details so that the black shows through. It was first described by the Dutch scholar Jan Six in 1888, and was given its English name by J. D. Beazley.
White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica, dated to about 500 BC. It was especially associated with vases made for ritual and funerary use, if only because the painted surface was more fragile than in the other main techniques of black-figure and red-figure vase painting. Nevertheless, a wide range of subjects are depicted.
The Kerch style, also referred to as Kerch vases, is an archaeological term describing vases from the final phase of Attic red-figure pottery production. Their exact chronology remains problematic, but they are generally assumed to have been produced roughly between 375 and 330/20 BC. The style is characterized by slender mannered figures and a polychromatism given to it by the use of white paint and gilding.
The Amasis Painter was an ancient Greek vase painter who worked in the black-figure technique. He owes his name to the signature of the potter Amasis, who signed twelve works painted by the same hand. At the time of the exhibition, "The Amasis Painter and His World" (1985), 132 vases had been attributed to this artist.
The Providence Painter is the conventional name given to a painter of the Attic red-figure style. He was active around 470 BC.
The Eretria Painter was an ancient Greek Attic red-figure vase painter. He worked in the final quarter of the 5th century BC. The Eretria Painter is assumed to have been a contemporary of the Shuvalov Painter; he is considered one of the most interesting painters of his time. Many of his best works are painted on oinochoai and belly lekythoi. His paintings often depict many figures, moving in groups across all available surfaces. He also painted such vessels as figure-shaped vases or head-shaped kantharoi. Even as the vase shapes he painted on are unusual, his themes are conventional: athletes, satyrs and maenads, and mythological scenes. There are also some careful studies of women. He also painted white-ground vases. A lekythos in New York shows a funeral scene, typical of white-ground painting: Achilles is mourning Patroclus; the nereids bring him new weapons. The Eretria Painter's drawing style influenced later artists, e.g. the Meidias Painter and his school.
The Athena Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active about 490 to 460 BC. His speciality were white-ground lekythoi painted in the black-figure style.
The Reed Painter is an anonymous Greek vase painter of white-ground lekythoi, a type of vessel for containing oil often left as grave offerings. Works are attributed to either the "Reed Painter" or his atelier.
The C Painter was one of the most important Attic black-figure vase painters. His works date to circa 575–550 BC. His conventional name was allocated by the archaeologist John Beazley. The C stands for "Corinthianising", a reference to the strong influence of Corinthian vase painting on the artist. He was successor to the Comast Group and used the relatively old-fashioned range of vessel shapes preferred by that group, including lekanis, tripod kothon and skyphos. In contrast, he also painted quite innovative lekythoi with pronounced shoulders, although the more conservative Deinaeira type was still in use by some workshops at his time. The C Painter was the first Attic vase painter to paint cups without an offset lip, the Merrythought cup.
The Leagros Group was a group of Attic black-figure vase painters active during the last two decades of the 6th century BC. The name given to the group by modern scholars is a conventional one, derived from a series of name vases.
The Edinburgh Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active around 500 BC. His speciality was white-ground lekythoi painted in the black-figure style.
Etruscan vase painting was produced from the 7th through the 4th centuries BC, and is a major element in Etruscan art. It was strongly influenced by Greek vase painting, and followed the main trends in style over the period. Besides being producers in their own right, the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek pottery outside Greece, and some Greek painters probably moved to Etruria, where richly decorated vases were a standard element of grave inventories.
The Haimon painter was a anonymous 5th-century BC Ancient Greek painter and draughtsman, so named by C.H.E. Haspels and John Beazley on account of a recurring subject in his black-figure vase painting—the Sphinx and its victim, the last of whom—according to a Greek myth—was Haimon. His name is unknown, but individual characteristics of style suggest the existence of a unique artistic personality. He specialized mostly in lekythoi and was closely related in manner to other contemporary Athenian vase-painters.
Sappho Painter was an Attic black-figure vase painter, active c. 510–490 BCE.
