Vase Painting in the Archaic Style

Vase Painting

The color of Athenian pottery is red and black, but it is all made from the same clay.

When "raw" the clay is reddish-orange because of the large quantity of Iron Oxide (Fe₂O₃) it contains. When fired in the open air (in oxidizing conditions), this clay it remains red.

However, if one were to fire this clay in an environment where oxygen has been eliminated (reducing conditions), it will turn black. To achieve this, the potter would light a fire in a kiln and add wet sawdust or green wood which burn incompletely and therefore remove oxygen from the red clay. In a reducing kiln, Fe₂O₃ (red) becomes FeO (black). The fire produces Carbon Monoxide (CO) instead of CO₂. If there is water vapor present, Fe₃O₄ can form, which is a very black compound.

There are, however, some technical problems. When a fired black pot is removed from a reducing atmosphere, the clay will replace the lost oxygen from the air, and it will turn red again. Therefore, the trick is to stop the oxygen from getting back into the parts of the pot that one wants to remain black. In addition to containing iron, the clay also contains minute particles of quartz. The "paint" (or engobe glaze) was used to cover the areas on the pot that stay black is chemically the same as the clay used for the pot itself - but it had the larger particles of quartz removed. In the engobe glaze, these tiny quartz particles are dense.

When a "painted" pot is fired, the tiny quartz particles in the painted areas fuse together (a process called sintering) and enclose the clay beneath in a sort of glassy film. This does not happen on the unpainted clay. Oxygen cannot reenter the sintered areas and, so, when the pot cools, the sintered areas turn black while the rest of the pot reverts to red.

But sintering is very tricky. The temperature in the kiln must be between 900 and 950 degrees Celsius. If it gets hotter than 1050 during the reoxidizing phase the whole pot will reoxidize and any black color will be lost.

Technique for Making Black Figure Pottery

	First, a pot was fashioned from "raw" clay. The clay was reddish-orange because it contained a large quantity of Iron Oxide (Fe₂O₃). If this clay was fired in the open air (in oxidizing conditions), it would remain red.
	The artist would make an initial drawing on the vessel, probably in charcoal. In this example, the artist sketched a bearded figure. Next, the artist would cover the figure using engobe (a thinned mixture of clay and silica) as paint.
	In some cases, the artist might paint extra colors over the layer of engobe. For example, a white clay might be used for parts of the clothing, and a reddish purple clay might be used for the hair. These colors would not change after firing (although much of the white has worn off the pots which survive today).
	To outline the figures or to add fine detail, the artist would incise the surface of the design using a sharp tool known as a burin. That is, the artist scratched through the engobe to the underlying color of the vase.
	The pot would then be fired in a reducing environment (where oxygen was eliminated). To achieve this, the potter would add wet sawdust or green wood to the fire. These burn incompletely and, therefore, remove oxygen from the red clay. In a reducing kiln, Fe₂O₃ (red) becomes FeO (black). The fire produces Carbon Monoxide (CO) instead of CO₂. If there is water vapor present, Fe₃O₄ can form, which is a very black compound.
	After firing, the pot was slowly cooled to room temperature and exposed to ambient air. The parts of the pot that were not covered with engobe would re-oxidize and again become reddish- orange. Finally, the pot would be burnished or polished up.

These images are from: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/blackfigure.htm

Forms of Greek Pottery

	Amphora (wine storage)
	Pelike (wine storage)
	Hydria (water storage)
	Bell Krater (for mixing wine and water)
	Volute Krater
	Calyx Krater
	Lekythos (singular); Lekythoi (plural) (for storing oil)
	Kylix (drinking vessel)

The technique of Black Figure pottery began with the Corinthians. The Athenians learned it from the Corinthians and then became extremely skilled.

The so-called “Francois vase” was named after the person who discovered it. It had been found in an Etruscan tomb in Italy, even though it was made in Athens Greece. Clearly, these vessels were highly admired by others and were exported for profit by the Athenians.

Technically, this is not a vase, but a Volute Krater. It would have been used for mixing wine and water.

This piece is important because it is signed — indicating a new status for both the potter and the artist. The potter was Ergotimos; the painter was Kleitas. In fact, each signed their name twice.

There are elements of this vase that are Orientalizing, specifically, the registers and the appearance of sphinxes and Eastern animals. However, the rest comes from Greek mythology. We know this because every one of the sihouetted figure is labeled and therefore identified. This is very important — not all artists knew how to read & write. So this was art made by literate, educated artists and was intended for a literate, educated market.

The story is that of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. The Lapiths were a tribe from northern Greece. The centaurs were invited guests in the celebration of a wedding. Everything was fine until the centaurs got drunk and tried to carry off the young Lapith women and boys. The wedding feast deteriorated into a brawl. This scene is called a centauromachy — which literally means the “centaur war or battle.”

Kleitas uses some familiar conventions, such as the twisted perspective with the head in profile view and the torso frontal. Like the Geometric krater that we examined earlier, depth is conveyed by overlapping. Still, would you confuse this with a Geometric design? Hopefully not! Here there is much more emphasis on anatomy.

Exekias lived in Athens during the 6^th century. He was both the potter and the painter — clearly a highly skilled craftsmen. This was executed in one piece on a potter’s wheel.

This amphora was also discovered in an Etruscan tomb — again emphasizing the fact that these were highly desired and were part of Athens export market.

This is an example of the Black Figure technique. There is a single panel in front the of amphora; the rest is plain. Note that the silhouetted figures have written labels.

The scene shows Ajax playing board game with Achilles at Troy. Achilles is on the left and Ajax is on the right. Their hunched backs are reflected in the curve of the vessel. Their heads are in profile. Their bodies seem tense. Both men still hold their spears and still have their armor on. The spears direct attention to the game. There is a sense of depth created through overlapping form — but still the emphasis on two-dimensional design is consistent with this being a two-dimensional surface.

Ajax and Achilles are indeed characters in Homer’s writings. Both of them were warriors that fought in the Trojan War. They compete for glory — which one will conquer Troy?

However, this particular scene does not appear in Homer’s work. It seems to be a scene that Exekias made up. Is it a action-filled scene? No — is rather a mental competition. The tensions of the battlefield are, here, transferred to the board game.

Ultimately, we know that Achilles won the game and that Ajax was the loser. We know this because the amphora shows Achilles saying “four” and Ajax saying “three.” Ajax loses the game, but this also predicts his fate.

After Achilles dies in battlefield, his body is recovered by Ajax and Odysseus. To thank them, Thetis (Achilles mother) says that one of them can have Achilles’ armor. The gods make Ajax sound stupid and vain and so the armor goes to Odysseus. After this, Ajax goes into a rage and slaughters a herd of cattle. Then, in shame, he kills himself. So Ajax loses the game and loses his honor. He is not an heroic figure.