Greek Vase Painting
Geometric/Orientalizing ReviewBlack-figureRed – figure
White - ground
GEOMETRIC
Funerary krater, 750 BCE
• Narrative bands• Deceased on table• Focus on emotions of
survivors• Simplified geometric
figures
Orientalizing
Olpe, 600 BCE
• Hybrid animals and decoration show influence of Egypt and Mesopotamia
BLACK - FIGUREKlietias (artist/potter), Francois Vase, black-figure, 570 BCE• Discovered by an
archaeologist named Francois
• Transition from geometric and orientalizing into archaic
• Still using bands for narration, but not for long
• Mythological subjects, many from Trojan war
• Two hundred figures, all labeled!
BLACK - FIGURE
Exekias, The Suicide of Ajax, black-figure on amphora, 540 BCE
• Single scene o each side• Ajax, best friend and
cousin of Achilles, preparing to fall on his sword
• Legs show realistic crouching position
• Balanced composition reflects the shape of the vase
RED - FIGURE
No need to memorize the vase at the top. Scene of a death in the Trojan war.
Pan Painter, Artemis Slaying Actaeon, red-figure on bell krater, 470 BCE (bottom)
• Goddess Artemis turns Acteon’s dogs on him and then shoots him with arrow because he happened upon her bathing while he was hunting in the woods
• composition reflects the shape of the vase
WHITE - GROUND
Achilles style painter, scene on a lekythos, 450 BCE• Delicate details• Painter created
many images of Achilles
Battle of Issus, mosaic, 100 BCE. Roman copy of Greek originalAlexander the Great battling Darius. Action-packed.