Figure 34 Attic black-figure amphora signed, “Exekias made and painted me,” showing Ajax and
Achilles (both labeled) playing dice; height 61.1 cm, ca. 540–530 BC. Vatican Museums, Museo
Gregoriano Etrusco, Inv. 16757.
Source: © 2015. Photo Scala, Florence.
Shortly after this vase was created, Athenian artists began to experiment with a new technique of vase
painting, the technique now known as “red-figure,” which gives the appearance of being merely the
converse of the black-figure technique. Around 530 BC, instead of using the slip for the figures and
incising the interior details, painters tried drawing the figures in outline and then filling in the background
with slip, so that the figures remained in the reddish color of the natural clay while the background
became black when the vase was fired. There were two prominent advantages to this technique over the
black-figure, one from the point of view of the painter and one from that of the viewer. From the
perspective of the viewer, the figures in red-figure scenes produce a more convincing illusion of three-
dimensionality, in part because, in general, a light-colored figure stands out more sharply from, and
appears closer to the viewer on, a dark-colored background. The illusion of three-dimensionality is
further enhanced because now it is much easier to depict figures that overlap one another (figure 35), in
contrast to the often isolated characters in black-figure scenes. In addition, the figures in red-figure scenes
no longer appear in the uniform, flat black of their black-figure counterparts, and the interior details of the
figures, which are darker than their surroundings in red-figure but lighter in black-figure, correspond to
the places where shadows appear in three-dimensional figures. From the perspective of the creator of the