Tradition
Ancient Greek Pottery
Greece · 1000 BCE – 300 BCE
Black and red. Stories painted in clay.
On Greek vases, we can read mythology, watch athletes compete, and see daily life from 2,500 years ago.
Ancient Greek pottery is our window into the ancient world. The black-figure technique (black silhouettes on red clay, details incised) gave way to red-figure (red figures reserved against black, details painted in). Both techniques used the same iron-rich Attic clay, manipulated through oxidation and reduction firing. The scenes depicted everything: gods and heroes, symposia and athletics. Greek pottery influenced Roman ceramics and, rediscovered during the Renaissance, shaped European ideas about classical beauty.
What stories would you tell on a vessel?
Techniques
- Black-figure
- Red-figure
- Three-phase firing
- Narrative painting