Although Athenian painters achieved a high level of detail and realism with their Black Figure style, by 520 b. c.e., they managed to improve on this technique with a new style called Red Figure (see Image 8.13). Instead of painting black figures on a red background, they painted black backgrounds around characters who remained either the red hue of the pottery, or white in the case of females. A much greater degree of naturalism was possible with this technique, as well as a much greater degree of elaborateness.
The earliest Red Figure images were on the "backs" of Black Figure vases, where the same scene was depicted on one side as Black Figure and on the other as Red Figure. Such vases are called Bilinguals. Red Figure proved to be the pinnacle of Greek vase painting and was used continually from 500 b. c.e. until well after the Roman conquest.
Even so, some variety was desirable, and a style called White Ground became popular in the fifth century. Here, the artist painted the vessel white, with the characters decorating the pot being delineated by fine lines of black paint and enhanced with soft shades of other colors (see Image 8.11). A similar style appeared during the Black Figure phase, but incorporating only black and white.
The main problem with this style was technological—the white paint was very delicate and tended to flake off easily. So the Athenian artisans limited its use to items that would not see too much action, especially pottery used in funerary ritual, such as the lekythoi (small jugs) used to pour perfumed oil onto graves. Lekythoi became the primary media of the White Ground style, and they were so common in funerary use that statues of White Ground lekythoi became common grave markers. Beyond their use in death ritual, such lekythoi are also now invaluable for the light they shed on women's lives in Classical Athens. As women were primarily responsible for funerary rites and rituals, it was usually women who brought such lekythoi (as well as floral garlands and libations) to the cemeteries. Athenian painters, knowing their market, directed the images on the lekythoi to women, decorating the vessels with scenes of women's daily lives. Thus, on these vessels we see pictures of women doing housework, raising their children, reading, talking with their husbands, and carrying out the funerary rituals for which they bought the lekythoi in the first place (see Image 9.34).
9.34 White Ground Lekythos with Grave Scene (Courtesy of Paul Butler)
World History
