More on Black Figure Pottery
When your pot is dry, you fire it in a kiln. First you give it a lot of air, so the whole pot turns red, slip and all. This is because the oxygen in the air mixes with the iron in the clay to create oxidized iron, which is red like rust or blood. Then you shut off the air supply, but just for a little while right at the end of the firing. When the air runs out, the fire sucks oxygen right out of the clay of the pot. But the places where there is slip, the slip is thinner and easier to suck air out of. So the slip turns black (the color of iron with no oxygen in it) faster than the rest of the pot (which is red, the color of iron with oxygen in it).
At first the Athenian potters didn't know much about drawing people, and their people look a little funny. Later they got better at it. They began to care more about drawing the muscles and the eyes right. They were especially careful about arranging the people in the picture in a pleasing way.
One famous Athenian potter of this time was Exekias. Another is called the Amasis painter.
Black figure vase painting lasted until about 525 BC.
(For a vase-painting project, click here.)
Back to page 1
To find out more about Greek black-figure vase painting, check out these
books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Ancient Greek Art, by Susie Hodge (1998)- for kids ages 9-12. Athenian Black Figure Vases: A Handbook, by John Boardman (1985) Understanding Greek Vases: A Guide to Terms, Styles, and Techniques (Getty Museum Publications 2002) by Andrew J. Clark, Maya Elston, Mary Louise Hart
Why did people want to punch Socrates?
Where did Egyptians bury your liver?
How old are the Rocky Mountains?
What does a half-timbered house look like?
How do you spin wool?
(a project)
Stone Age
Early Bronze Age
Late Bronze Age
Sub-Mycenean (Dark Age)
Geometric
Black-Figure
Red-Figure
Main Greek Art page
Main Greeks page
Main art page
