From the Protogeometric to the Orientalizing style
The styles and forms of ancient Greek pottery are similar throughout Greece, with small regional variations. In the Athenian workshops, the successive styles attained their greatest heights of perfection. The Protogeometric style seems to have originated in Athens, c. 1050 BC. Lines, circles and semi-circles are inscribed on a light-colored ground and, later, on a dark background. The repertoire of motifs gradually extended to include triangles, hooks, lozenges and meanders painted in brilliant black glaze, eventually covering the entire the surface of the vase. The highly refined Geometric style reached its height in Attica in the 9th and (especially) the 8th centuries BC. Figurative scenes appeared first in the later Geometric period (770-700 BC). These include funerary scenes, chariot processions and battles. In the late 8th and early 7th centuries BC, the Geometric style was transformed by influences from the Levant and the Far East, notably in the workshops of Corinth and the Aegean islands. The Orientalizing style features a diverse range of motifs - often borrowed from textiles - including flowers, foliage and plants, and exotic or hybrid animals.
Black-figure and Red-figure paintings
During this period, Attica began to emerge as the dominant center for pottery production in ancient Greece. Attic vases of the period were decorated with Black-figure paintings featuring silhouettes drawn in black on the orange-colored surface of the fired clay. Incised details and highlights in purple or white were added later. Black-figure painting reached its height c. 560 BC, when the Attic workshops consolidated their artistic supremacy. Themes favored by the painters included moments of high tragedy from the epic poems recounting the Trojan wars, religious and mythological scenes, and battles, but also scenes of everyday life: women in the gynaeceum (the female quarters of larger houses) or at the well, banquets or wrestling bouts at the palestra.
The decline of the Attic workshops
Around 480 BC, vase painters began to show a greater mastery of the representation of the human body, in motion and at rest. Eyes were now depicted in profile, in a complete break with Archaic tradition. Bodies in motion were drawn with a confident knowledge of anatomy, and a skillful use of perspective. Around 410 BC, delicate vases featured refined images of mythological lovers or scenes from the gynaeceum, with gold highlights. Figures were superposed, in a quest for greater pictorial depth. The poses, drapery and fabrics of female figures were clearly influenced by sculpture in the so-called Rich style. These sumptuous, highly refined productions represented the final flowering of Attic art.
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