Figure 33 Reverse of figure 32, showing a competitor in the four-horse chariot race. Princeton University
Art Museum, Bequest of Mrs. Allan Marquand.

Source: Photo: Bruce M. White. Princeton (NJ), Princeton University Art Museum. © 2015. Princeton
University Art Museum / Art Resource NY / Scala, Florence.

Ceramics

At the time the Panathenaic games were reorganized in 566 BC, during the tyranny of Peisistratus, Athens
was just replacing Corinth as the leading Greek center for the production of painted pottery with figured
decoration. For the remainder of the sixth and throughout the fifth century BC, decorated Athenian ceramic
ware was a desired commodity and was widely exported throughout the Greek world and beyond. Vases
from Athens turn up in large numbers in Italy, for example, in Etruscan tombs. Athenian ceramic ware in
the sixth century BC was regularly decorated in a style now known as the “black-figure” technique, in
which men, horses, or other figures were applied using a SLIP that turned black when the vase was fired,
while the background retained the reddish-orange color of the local clay, which has a high iron content.
Interior details, like the lines for the chariot, facial features, and drapery in figure 33, were produced by
drawing lines with a graver, which scraped off the slip, allowing the color of the natural clay to show
through. By convention, women were represented with white skin, reflecting the fact that Athenian women
– and their divine counterparts (figure 32) – were expected to spend their time indoors, whereas the more