The practice of signing vases began in the 7th century; a Protocorinthian lekythos and a (perhaps Argive) krater with the names of their potters, Pyrrhos and Aristonothos, are the earliest examples. Timonidas, Chares and Milonidas are the only known Corinthian painters ; there are four or five Boeotians, and the rest are Attic. Names are always accompanied by the words made
or painted (g-ypatk€), sometimes by both. The former is taken to be the potter's signature, but the term is not explicit, and may apply to the owner of the factory, to the manipulator of the clay, or to the maker and decorator. But double signatures indicate that the functions of potter and painter were generally separate : "Ergotimos made me, Klitias painted me" on the Francois vase; and one man occasionally claims both honours: "Exekias painted and made me." More than oo Attic masters are known by name. Many were manifestly foreign, and some were slaves from the unpromising regions of Thrace and Scythia. One of the great black-figure potters bears an Egyptian name, Amasis; his work reveals Ionian affinities and shows that the Athenian monopoly was partly achieved by at tracting foreign craftsmen to the city. Mature Attic pottery in corporates the best qualities of the fabrics which it superseded, technical excellence accomplished draughtsmanship and a large repertory of pot-shapes and decorative schemes.
In archaeological usage the numerous shapes are denoted by ancient names which do not always rest on ancient authority, but they are accepted as a convenient means of clas sification. Important forms are two-handled storage-jars (am phora, pelike, stamnos), mixing-bowls (krater, in variety), water pots (hydria, kalpis), jugs (oinochoe, olpe, prochoos), drinking cups (kylix, kantharos, kotyle, phiale, skyphos), and oil-bottles (alabastron, aryballos, askos, lekythos). All were copied from metal models. Greek pottery was never a free art; its forms and decoration were inspired, controlled, and finally destroyed by progress in the arts of painting and metallurgy. After the middle of the 6th century, when technical perfection had been achieved, Attic decorators set themselves to perfect their draughtsmanship and power of expression, and the interest of painted pottery after that time is largely as a document in the history of drawing. The finest early black-figure work is the Francois vase in Florence, a monumental krater signed by Klitias and Ergotimos. It is covered with bands of lively narrative, the Calydonian boar-hunt, the funeral games of Patroclos, the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the death of Troilos, and the battle of Pygmies and cranes. Among many later masterpieces is an amphora in the Vatican made and painted by Exekias, with a single panel-picture on each side. One picture shows Achilles and Aias playing draughts. The group is a stock subject reproduced by several painters, an excerpt, doubtless, from a monumental picture of the siege of Troy. The intentness of the poses and the elaboration of incised detail repre sent the last possible achievement of this style.
The innovation was made before the
end of the 6th century, about 520 B.C. Some masters, notably An docides and Pamphaios, produced vases in both styles, and even combined the two on one vase. In the new process the back ground was blacked and the figures reserved on the red clay; inner markings, details of limbs and features were drawn in thin lines of black glaze, hair and clothing were occasionally done with a diluted brown or yellow wash of the same medium. The glaze has not been successfully reproduced by modern experiment, but analysis shows that it was composed of ferruginous earth with an alkaline flux. It was applied to the pot after the clay was dried, and before firing. The design was lightly sketched with a point, then drawn in outline and detail, apparently with a pen.
The background was blacked in, and certain contours of the figures accentuated with relief lines of thick glaze. Touches of colour, red and gold, were very rarely added, and pot and glaze were fired together in a single operation. The new drawing had unlimited freedom and made rapid progress in truth and ex pression, but its decorative qualities were slight. The formality of archaic art and the restraint of early classical drawing preserved the decorative value of the figures to some extent, but after the middle of the 5th century, when the problems of representation had been solved, this character was lost, and facile drawing ad mitted weak design.
Epiktetos, Euphronios, Euthy mides, Brygos, Hieron, Douris, are a few names of the great archaic-masters; Sotades, Polygnotos, Meidias, of the free style. Some of these signed as potters, some as painters, and there are anonymous painters, no less capable and far more numerous, whose style can be recognized in their work. Recent research has gone far towards identifying all the hands in Attic red-figure draw ing. Where the artist is not known by name, he is called after the potter for whom he worked (the Brygos painter, Meidias painter), after one of his vases or the collection in which it is preserved (the Villa Giulia painter, the painter of the Bowdoin Box) or a notable subject (the Pan painter), or after other persons named on his vases (the Panaitios painter). These, the so-called love names, refer to popular idols of their day. When known to his tory they are youths of noble family, and the form of inscription Panaitios is handsome (Ilavatrtos KaX6q indicates that their fame rested on their good looks. The duration of this popularity was therefore not very long, and the use of historical names, Glaukon, Leagros, Miltiades, is valuable evidence for the dates of the vases. The character of red-figure subjects changes with the style. Archaic artists favoured heroic deeds and genial life, exploits of Herakles and Theseus, battles with Amazons and Cen taurs, athletic contests and drinking-bouts. The early free style suited contemplative subjects, boys leaving home for the wars, religious and musical ceremonies. In the late free or florid style the scene is largely filled with idle women clad in voluptuous robes and trifling with winged love-gods.