Attic pottery of the Classical period can be divided into several categories, depending on what the surface decoration is. These categories are: red-figure pots; black-figure pots;white - ground vessels, black-glazed pottery; and unglazed pottery for common use. These categories were already familiar in the Archaic period. In the Classical period, however, craftsmen developed the possibilities of the medium still further, at the same time improving the variety of decorative patterns. The influence of major painting is obvious in composition of scenes with several figures. The influence of the sculptures of the Parthenon is confined to a few figures only. From lekythoi and other white-ground pots we can get some idea, in a limited way, of how the best-known major painters of the time were experimenting with colour. |
The black-figure remained alive until well into the |
Many of the forms for pottery vessels were, for certain, copied from metalwork objects. This was a two-way process: forms, patterns and motifs could be transferred from either material to the other.
Classical pottery is both an inexhaustible treasurehouse of information about mythology, everyday life and aesthetic values; and simultaneously an important working tool. Pottery is largely the basis for the relative and absolute dating of artefacts and buildings.
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