Vase Painting
Labeled figures and artists’ signatures also appear on Archaic
painted vases. By the mid-sixth centuryBCE, the Athenians, having
learned the black-figure technique from the Corinthians (FIG. 5-5),
had taken over the export market for fine painted ceramics.
FRANÇOIS VASEThe masterpiece of early Athenian black-fig-
ure painting is the François Vase (FIG. 5-20), named for the excava-
tor who uncovered it in an Etruscan tomb at Chiusi. The vase is a
new kind of krater with volute-shaped handles, probably inspired by
costly metal prototypes. It was signed by both its painter (“Kleitias
painted me”) and potter (“Ergotimosmade me”), whose signatures
each appear twice among the more than 200 figures in six registers.
Labels abound, naming humans and animals alike, even some inan-
imate objects. The painter devoted only one of the bands to the Ori-
entalizing repertoire of animals and sphinxes. The rest constitute a
selective encyclopedia of Greek mythology, focusing on the exploits
of Peleus and his son Achilles, the great hero of Homer’s Iliad,and of
Theseus, the legendary king of Athens.In the detail shown here (FIG. 5-20,bottom), Lapiths (a northern
Greek tribe) and centaurs battle (centauromachy) after a wedding cel-
ebration where the man-beasts, who were invited guests, got drunk
and attempted to abduct the Lapith maidens and young boys. The-
seus, also on the guest list, was prominent among the centaurs’ Greek
adversaries. Kleitias did not fill the space between his figures with
decorative ornament, as did his Geometric predecessors (FIG. 5-2).
But his heroes still conform to the age-old composite type (profile
heads with frontal eyes, frontal torsos, and profile legs and arms). His
centaurs, however, are much more believable than their Geometric
counterparts (FIG. 5-3). The man-horse combination is top/bottom
rather than front/back. The lower (horse) portion has four legs of
uniform type, and the upper part of the monster is fully human. In
characteristic fashion, Kleitias painted the animal section of the cen-
taur in strict profile, whereas the human head and torso are a com-
posite of frontal and profile views. (He used a consistent profile for
the more adventurous detail of the collapsed centaur at the right.)
EXEKIASThe acknowledged master of the black-figure tech-
nique was an Athenian named Exekias,whose vases were not only
widely exported but copied as well. Perhaps his greatest work is an
amphora (FIG. 5-21), found in an Etruscan tomb at Vulci, that Ex-
ekias signed as both painter and potter. Unlike Kleitias, Exekias did
not divide the surface of the vase into a series of horizontal bands.
Instead, he placed figures of monumental stature in a single large
framed panel. At the left is Achilles, fully armed. He plays a dice
game with his comrade Ajax. From the lips of Achilles comes the
word tesara (four). Ajax calls out tria (three). Although Ajax has
taken off his helmet, both men hold their spears, and their shields
are close at hand. Each man is ready for action at a moment’s notice.
This depiction of “the calm before the storm” is the antithesis of the
Archaic preference for dramatic action. The gravity and tension that
will characterize much Classical Greek art of the next century, but
that are absent in Archaic art, already may be seen in this vase.
Exekias had no equal as a black-figure painter. This is evident in
such details as the extraordinarily intricate engraving of the patterns
on the heroes’ cloaks (highlighted with delicate touches of white)
and in the brilliant composition. The arch formed by the backs of
the two warriors echoes the shape of the rounded shoulders of the
amphora. The shape of the vessel (compare FIG. 5-22) is echoed
again in the void between the heads and spears of Achilles and Ajax.
Exekias also used the spears to lead the viewer’s eyes toward the
thrown dice, where the heroes’ eyes are fixed. Of course, those eyes5-20Kleitiasand Ergotimos,
François Vase (Athenian black-figure
volute krater), from Chiusi, Italy,
ca. 570 bce.General view (top) and
detail of centauromachy on other side
of vase (bottom). 2 2 high. Museo
Archeologico, Florence.
Found in an Etruscan tomb, this huge
krater is signed by both the painter
and the potter and has more than
200 mythological figures presented
in registers, as on Geometric and
Orientalizing vases.114 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE1 ft.
1 in.5-21AEXEKIAS,
Achilles Killing
Penthesilea,
ca. 540–530 BCE.