DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9177#0235
XIII
CLASSES OF VASES
215
Exekias, and Nearchus. In fact, the vases of this class furnish
us with a large number of interesting representations. And
these well illustrate some of the fundamental artistic princi-
ples of Greece. But the primitiveness and monotony of the
method of drawing, combined with the enormous demand set
up by the Etruscan custom of burying Attic ware with their
dead, caused the production of it to be usually hasty and
conventional. Its abundance in our museums is perhaps a
misfortune. At any rate, it was like the letting out of water
when, towards the end of the sixth century, the red-figured
method of vase-painting was introduced, though the black-
figured method did not, for perhaps half a century, go out of
use.
(5) Red-figured (Attic); severe (525-460 B.C.). — In this style
the black silhouette was given up for outline figures drawn in
black on the red surface of the vase, while the background was
painted out in black varnish. The great advantage of the
new process was that inner markings could henceforth, instead
of being cut with a tool, be drawn with the pen or brush. Thus
the formality of the design was greatly reduced, and a path
toward freedom opened. What especially distinguishes red-
figured vases from the first is the facility and beauty of the
lines in which they are drawn. To speak of them as painted is
barely correct; the designs are essentially linear drawings, and
as such they must be judged. It is in this fashion that the
best known of the Attic vase-painters, Euphronius,1 Oltus,
Duris, and the rest worked : their favourite form was the kylix.
The interest attaching to Greek vases certainly centres in
the early red-figured drawings. The reasons may be briefly
stated: —
(a.) They are works of Attic artists, of the stirring period of
the Persian wars. The sculptural remains of Athens at this
1 On Euphronius Dr. W. Klein has written a valuable monograph. Lists of
works of other painters are given in his Vasen mil Meislersignaturen.
CLASSES OF VASES
215
Exekias, and Nearchus. In fact, the vases of this class furnish
us with a large number of interesting representations. And
these well illustrate some of the fundamental artistic princi-
ples of Greece. But the primitiveness and monotony of the
method of drawing, combined with the enormous demand set
up by the Etruscan custom of burying Attic ware with their
dead, caused the production of it to be usually hasty and
conventional. Its abundance in our museums is perhaps a
misfortune. At any rate, it was like the letting out of water
when, towards the end of the sixth century, the red-figured
method of vase-painting was introduced, though the black-
figured method did not, for perhaps half a century, go out of
use.
(5) Red-figured (Attic); severe (525-460 B.C.). — In this style
the black silhouette was given up for outline figures drawn in
black on the red surface of the vase, while the background was
painted out in black varnish. The great advantage of the
new process was that inner markings could henceforth, instead
of being cut with a tool, be drawn with the pen or brush. Thus
the formality of the design was greatly reduced, and a path
toward freedom opened. What especially distinguishes red-
figured vases from the first is the facility and beauty of the
lines in which they are drawn. To speak of them as painted is
barely correct; the designs are essentially linear drawings, and
as such they must be judged. It is in this fashion that the
best known of the Attic vase-painters, Euphronius,1 Oltus,
Duris, and the rest worked : their favourite form was the kylix.
The interest attaching to Greek vases certainly centres in
the early red-figured drawings. The reasons may be briefly
stated: —
(a.) They are works of Attic artists, of the stirring period of
the Persian wars. The sculptural remains of Athens at this
1 On Euphronius Dr. W. Klein has written a valuable monograph. Lists of
works of other painters are given in his Vasen mil Meislersignaturen.