Greek Red-Figure Vase Painting
More Versatile than Black-Figure and Quickly Replaced It
![Red-figure painting of a woman on a kylix, Wikipedia [public domain]](http://images.suite101.com/130065_arthistory_redfigurepainting_kylix_femme_wikipedia.jpg "Red-figure painting of a woman on a kylix, Wikipedia [public domain]")
Red-figure vase painting - popular from ca 530-300 BC - marks the apex of Archaic Greek vase painting
In Archaic Greek black-figure vase painting, the decoration appears as black silhouettes painted on a reddish-orange background. The dominant black color flattens the figures, posing them in rigid and awkward positions and giving them a paper-doll appearance.
For example, limbs that are supposed to be “behind” are depicted as higher or lower than the body. The black color also makes it difficult to see details in the painting. This flattening is the flaw in black-figure painting and explains why artists developed the more sophisticated red-figure painting.
The two painting techniques overlapped for a very short period of time – 530-500 BC – before red-figure painting took over that of black-figure.
In the red-figure technique, the background is filled in with black paint and only the figures' details are painted, allowing the unpainted portions of the figures to take on the reddish tone of the clay underneath. The red-figure process allows more intricate detail on the ornaments, humans, and animals depicted than does the black-figure painting.
To begin the red-figure artwork, the artist draws a rough charcoal outline on the reddish-orange clay vase surface. Ordinarily this disappears when the pot is fired. Then the painter outlines the figure with a thin line of specially-treated clay that turns black when the pot is fired. Next the details within the figure are painted in: facial details, hair, fingers, objects held in the hands, or folds in clothing. The lines that mark these details are remarkably consistently thin and “stick up” in relief.
This use of a brush in the red-figure technique to paint in details is much better suited to the naturalistic representation of anatomy, garments, and emotions than the use of a tool to scrape away the background paint as is done in black-figure painting.
Finally, the entire background around the figures is filled in with this same specially-treated clay. After firing, the pot is left to cool and is burnished (or polished). All the “paint” (in the form of the specially-treated clay) has turned black, leaving the figure in the natural red of the clay.
As red-figure vase artists were able to represent the human body in increasingly complex poses, they more frequently depicted scenes of everyday life – athletics, drinking, banquets, and warfare – that allowed them to display their mastery of the new medium. In the middle of the fifth century BC, vase painters began to include poignant scenes of daily life that focused on women engaged in domestic activities, scenes of music-making, or wedding preparations.
Source:
Janson, H.W. History of Art. N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974.
