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.