Penthesilea bowl | Greek vase painting in practice | Τhe red figure technique
voice-over-script & subtitles (by Eleni Aloupi, EA/THETIS)
As Achilles looms over the falling Amazon and begins to deliver the mortal blow their eyes meet. The painter forces us to enter into the state of mind of the characters involved. Not only do his characters think, but they make us think too – qualities which perhaps constitute the essence of Early Classical Art.
This kylix depicting the slaying of the queen of Amazons Penthesilea by Achilles, was painted in a year between 470 and 460 BCE by an unknown vase painter at his studio near the center of Athens; most probably in the potter’s district of Kerameikos.
Today the unusually large kylix, known as the “Penthesilea bowl no 2688” forms part of the State Collections of Antiquities in Munich (Munich, Glyptothek and Antikensammlung).
We’ll follow the stages of production of a newly designed such kylix portraying the same scene in its tondo, which we were asked to reproduce for a private collection.
The first stage to produce a vase is the study of the design, details of decoration, calculation of its dimensions and proportions, requiring access to specialized libraries and databases.
Our vase-painter has produced a series of drawings and sketches before arriving at the final design which in itself has a special collectible value, completing and restoring the missing parts of the original image.
At the next stage we construct the vase body. In this case, we chose a large black glazed kylix of classical times.
The kylix was formed on the wheel in two parts, separately the cup and the stem, which were left to dry for 2 days before joining.
This is also the most vulnerable point of construction. As usual, we encountered failures that though discourage us, we learn from them and make us look at the original ancient vases for another perspective (and give us another perspective to the ancient vases)
To produce the ultra-fine clay slip, natural ferruginous clays from Attica are soaked in water and processed.
Specific knowledge is required both for the location of the clay deposit and for the preparation of the colloidal suspension from which the clay paint results. The preparation process lasts up to one week.
This stage is an important component of our know-how that has been acquired over the last 30 years through research, experimentation, and teamwork.
The areas that are going to become black are covered with the red clay paint. The vase goes through different hands as it was decorated by two vase painters, hand-drawn the main painting scene in its interior and the large exterior surface on the turn-table.
In the end, with an extra thin brush, the relief lines (those that are going to become intensely black) are added which give strength and integrity to the drawing.
Penthesilea's scene is colorful and gilded with added pigments and embossed decorative elements with clay in the armor of the warriors (the cuirasses, leggings, swords and the spear) and the jewels wearing the Amazons.
The decorated cup is then placed in the kiln specially designed to perform the 3-stage firing as it was practiced by the ancients.
16 hours later, the red clay paint turns to the black glaze known for its velvet sheen and unsurpassed quality.
Gilding is applied after the firing, as in antiquity. The relief clay ornaments are covered with organic glue, and a then a golden metal sheet is placed on top and fixed with burnishing.
6 people worked in total to produce the vase and the materials used. The whole process lasted 7 weeks and it took us 9 hours to form the kylix on the wheel, 25 hours for decoration and 60 hours for firing. The work took place between October to November 2018.
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05 Ancient Greece 04 Archaic Exekias, Attic black figure amphora with Ajax and Achilles playi
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(Episode split into 2 parts for YouTube.) Using a particularly delightful example from the Art Institute of Chicago, we look at the history of the Ancient Greek rhyton (drinking cup) from its involvement in heroic warrior feasts and sacrifices to the drinking parties of 5th Century B.C. Athens. We'll also examine some other great vessels at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and check out a popular drinking game in Ancient Greece. Explore more episodes, image galleries, credits, transcripts, and additional resources at Connect at and
Pottery of ancient Greece | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Pottery of ancient Greece
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- Socrates
SUMMARY
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Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society. The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were several vessels produced locally for everyday and kitchen use, yet finer pottery from regions such as Attica was imported by other civilizations throughout the Mediterranean, such as the Etruscans in Italy. There were various specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery.
Throughout these places, various types and shapes of vases were used. Not all were purely utilitarian; large Geometric amphorae were used as grave markers, kraters in Apulia served as tomb offerings and Panathenaic Amphorae seem to have been looked on partly as objets d’art, as were later terracotta figurines. Some were highly decorative and meant for elite consumption and domestic beautification as much as serving a storage or other function, such as the krater with its usual use in diluting wine.
Earlier Greek styles of pottery, called Aegean rather than Ancient Greek, include Minoan pottery, very sophisticated by its final stages, Cycladic pottery, Minyan ware and then Mycenaean pottery in the Bronze Age, followed by the cultural disruption of the Greek Dark Age. As the culture recovered Sub-Mycenaean pottery finally blended into the Protogeometric style, which begins Ancient Greek pottery proper.
The rise of vase painting saw increasing decoration. Geometric art in Greek pottery was contiguous with the late Dark Age and early Archaic Greece, which saw the rise of the Orientalizing period. The pottery produced in Archaic and Classical Greece included at first black-figure pottery, yet other styles emerged such as red-figure pottery and the white ground technique. Styles such as West Slope Ware were characteristic of the subsequent Hellenistic period, which saw vase painting's decline.
A Classical Lekythos (Ancient Art Podcast 6)
Episode 6 re-uploaded in its entirety. One could easily pass by this muted, diminutive, unassuming lekythos at the Art Institute of Chicago, but in this episode of the Ancient Art Podcast well closely examine its significant message and place it in the grander scheme of the newly refined aesthetic in late Archaic and Classical Athens. In exploring the narrative strategies of Attic vase painting, well also take a hard look at a particularly exemplary black-figure amphora by the renown vase painter Exekias: The Suicide of Ajax in the Château-Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer. Explore more episodes, image galleries, credits, transcripts, and additional resources at Connect at and