scene, the artist was now painting, rather than incising, those interior details, which could now be
produced with a freer, more fluid motion. Further, those details could be better differentiated from one
another by the use of a more or less diluted pigment. This new red-figure technique superseded the black-
figure within the span of a generation and was the preferred medium for nearly all the great Athenian vase
painters from the end of the sixth century through the end of the Classical Period. A prominent exception
to this, however, were the Panathenaic amphoras mentioned above, which continued to be decorated
consistently in the old-fashioned black-figure technique, even in the fourth century BC. There were, it
seems, limitations to the tolerance of innovation, especially when the artist’s patron was an arm of
government.

Figure 35 Interior of Attic red-figure cup by the Epidromos Painter, showing two men about to sacrifice a
pig; diameter of cup 19.8 cm, ca. 510–500 BC. Paris, Musée du Louvre, G 112.

Source: © The Art Archive / Alamy Stock Photo.

Zetemata: Questions for Discussion

In  what    ways    does    the symposium   replicate   features    of  the Archaic polis   as  a   whole,  and in  what

ways    does    it  distance    itself  from    the values  of  the polis?

In  the absence of  modern  copyright   laws,   what    measures    could   ancient creative    artists employ  in