ORIENTALIZING AMPHORAAn elaborate Corinthian
amphora (FIG. 5-5), or two-handled storage jar, typifies the new
Greek fascination with the Orient. In a series of registers recalling
the organization of Geometric painted vases, animals such as the na-
tive boar appear beside exotic lions and panthers and composite
creatures inspired by Eastern monsters such as the sphinx and lam-
assu. In this instance, the painter prominently displayed a siren (part
bird, part woman) on the amphora’s neck. The wide appeal of such
vases was not due solely to their Orientalizing animal friezes. They
owed their popularity also to a new ceramic technique the Corinthi-
ans invented. Art historians call this type of vase decoration black-
figure painting (see “Greek Vase Painting,” above). The black-figure
painter first put down black silhouettes on the clay surface of the
vessel, as in Geometric times, but then used a sharp pointed instru-
ment to incise linear details within the forms, usually adding high-
lights in white or purplish-red over the black figures before firing
the vase. The combination of the weighty black silhouettes with the
delicate detailing and the bright polychrome overlay proved to be
irresistible, and Athenian painters soon copied the technique the
Corinthians pioneered.104 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE
T
he techniques Greek ceramists used to shape and decorate fine
vases required great skill, which they acquired over many years
as apprentices in the workshops of master potters. During the Ar-
chaic and Classical periods, when the art of vase painting was at its
zenith in Greece, both potters and painters frequently signed their
work. These signatures reveal the pride of the artists.
The signatures also might have functioned as “brand names” for
a large export market. The products of the workshops in Corinth
and Athens in particular were highly prized and have been found all
over the Mediterranean world. The Corinthian Orientalizing am-
phora shown here (FIG. 5-5) was found on Rhodes, an island at the
opposite side of the Aegean from mainland Corinth (MAP5-1). The
Etruscans of central Italy (MAP9-1) were especially good customers.
Athenian vases were staples in Etruscan tombs, and all but one of the
illustrated examples (FIGS. 5-20to 5-24, 5-59,and 5-60) came from
an Etruscan site. Other painted Athenian pots have been found as far
away as France, Russia, and the Sudan.
The first step in manufacturing a Greek vase was to remove any
impurities found in the natural clay and then to knead it, like dough,
to remove air bubbles and make it flexible. The Greeks used dozens
of different kinds and shapes of pots, and most were produced in
several parts. Potters formed the vessel’s body by placing the clay on
a rotating horizontal wheel. While an apprentice turned the wheel by
hand, the potter pulled up the clay with the fingers until the desired
shape was achieved. The handles were shaped separately and attached
to the vase body by applying slip (liquefied clay) to the joints.
Then a specialist, the painter, was called in, although many pot-
ters decorated their own work. (Today most people tend to regard
painters as more elevated artists than potters, but in Greece the pot-
ters owned the shops and employed the painters.) Art historians cus-
tomarily refer to the “pigment” the painter applied to the clay surface
as glaze,but the black areas on Greek pots are neither pigment nor
glaze but a slip of finely sifted clay that originally was of the same rich
red-orange color as the clay of the pot. In the three-phase firing pro-
cess Greek potters used, the first (oxidizing) phase turned both pot and
slip red. During the second (reducing) phase, the potter shut off the
oxygen supply into the kiln, and both pot and slip turned black. In
the final (reoxidizing) phase, the pot’s coarser material reabsorbed
oxygen and became red again, whereas the smoother, silica-laden slip
did not and remained black. After long experiment, Greek potters de-
veloped a velvety jet-black “glaze” of this kind, produced in kilns heated
to temperatures as high as 950° Celsius (about 1,742° Fahrenheit).
The firing process was the same whether the painter worked in black-
figure or in red-figure. In fact, sometimes Greek artists employed both
manners on the same vase (FIG. 5-22).Greek Vase Painting
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES5-5Corinthian black-figure amphora with animal friezes, from
Rhodes, Greece, ca. 625–600 bce. 1 2 high. British Museum, London.
The Corinthians invented the black-figure technique of vase painting
in which artists painted black silhouettes and then incised linear details
within the forms. This early example features Orientalizing animals.1 in.