Greek vase painting
The Greek vase painting is the superordinate term for the decoration of Greek ceramics, usually applied with flammable earth colors . It encompasses the painted vessel decorations of various time stages from the pre-Greek Minoan culture to Hellenism , i.e. from around 2500 BC. Until the last century BC.
Since there is hardly any evidence of painting outside of ceramics, these representations are extremely important sources for visual culture, mythology and everyday life in ancient Greece. Greek ceramics is one of the most widespread archaeological finds for ancient Greece and can be found in the entire Greek settlement area. In addition to the Greek motherland, which largely corresponds to today's Greece, this includes large parts of the west coast of Asia Minor , the Aegean Islands , Crete, parts of Cyprus, the Greek-populated areas of Greater Greece , as well as the Greek colonies on the Propontis and the Black Sea . Greek ceramics, and thus Greek vase painting, also ended up as export goods to Etruria , the Iberian Peninsula , the Middle East , Egypt and North Africa . Painted Greek ceramics are even found in Celtic aristocratic graves .
All kinds of vessels that were needed for storage, meals, cults and celebrations were painted. Particularly lavishly painted and designed vessels were donated as consecration gifts in sanctuaries or placed in graves as gifts. The mostly hard-fired and weather-resistant ceramic has been preserved in tens of thousands as intact vessels or in fragments. For the dating of archaeological finds and the context of finds, Greek vase painting - like Greek ceramics in general - is a leading genre.
Numerous names of potters and painters are known from the archaic period through signatures . Where this is not the case, research makes do with emergency names in order to be able to assign vessels and painting styles to individual hands. They are based either on motifs in terms of content, characteristic features or on the found or storage locations of exemplary pieces. The central documentation for antique vases is provided by the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum .
Phases of vase painting
Greek vase painting is divided into different phases and sections depending on the time, culture and style. The division follows the major historical periods and differentiates them based on the style levels. Styles and time levels do not have to match. The classification begins with the Cretan-Minoan vase painting , followed by the vase painting of the Mycenaean or late Helladic period, with which it partly coexists. The Greek vase painting in the narrower sense, which appeared after the end of the Mycenaean empires and their culture, continues around 1050 BC. With the vase painting in the geometric style. After an orientalizing phase in the 7th century BC BC, the beginning of the archaic period, the black-figure vase painting was developed first, followed by the red-figure vase painting in the archaic period. This remains for the classical period in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Chr. Determining. There are also styles of other colors, such as white-ground vessels, and from the second quarter of the 4th century BC onwards. The black-ground Gnathia vases with their mostly white decoration. From the second half of the 3rd century BC. The production of ceramics decorated with paintings is slowly being phased out, only simply decorated and fleetingly painted smaller vessels are still made. They are increasingly being replaced by vessels decorated in relief.
Ancient Greek vase painting
Cretan-Minoan vase painting
From 2500 BC The production of painted vessels begins in the Cretan-Minoan cultural area. The initially simple geometric patterns are used around 2000 BC. Chr. By floral motifs, spirals and the like, which were painted in white paint on a matt black background, replaced in the so-called Kamaresstil . With the beginning of the New Palace period around 1650 BC The painting of the vessels changed fundamentally. The marine style now used brings mainly marine life to the fore: nautilus and octopus, corals and dolphins are applied in dense interweaving with dark colors on a light background. From 1450 BC Chr. An increasing stylization sets in, the representations become coarser.
Mycenaean time
Around 1600 BC At the beginning of the Late Helladic , the Mycenaean civilization was the first high culture on the continent, starting with the Argolidae and Laconia , whose vase painting was initially strongly influenced by the Minoan culture. The early examples show dark-colored, mostly brown or matt black patterns on a light background. From the Middle Mycenaean period (Late Helladic II, approx. 1500–1400 BC), when Mycenaean ceramics had established itself in the entire south and parts of Central Greece, motifs from the animal and plant world became popular. They were joined in the late phase soon after 1200 BC. Also depictions of people and ships. While Mycenaean ceramics were very uniform and only revealed minor regional differences during the so-called Mycenaean palace period (Late Helladic III A and B, approx. 1400–1190 BC), they began to emerge from around the last third BC. Different local styles.
Greek vase painting
Geometric style
After the fall of the Mycenaean culture around 1050 BC BC and a brief Sub-Mycenaean phase, protogeometric ceramics began a new form of design in the Greek world. In this early phase up to about 900 BC The vessels were mostly painted with large, strict geometric patterns. Typical are circles and semicircles drawn with a compass. The pattern sequences are arranged in different registers, each decorated individually and separated from each other by circumferential lines. In the developed geometric style, the geometric patterns become more complicated. Elaborate, nested meanders and double meanders are designed. There are also stylized representations of people, animals and objects. Carriages and warriors in frieze-like processions dominate the central areas of the vessels. The representations are always black, rarely red, on the lighter clay background. Towards the end of the 8th century BC This type of design is abandoned.
Orientalizing phase
From around 725 BC. Corinth dominated the ceramic production of Greece. In this early phase, which is also known as the Orientalizing or Protocorinthian style, more and more figural friezes and mythological representations are incorporated into vase painting. Posture, sequence, themes and representation were influenced by oriental models, especially the popular representations of griffins, sphinxes and lions found their way into the vase painting of this Proto-Corinthian style. The manufacturing technique corresponds completely to that of the black-figure style. The three-phase fire required for this must therefore have already been developed at that time.
Black-figure vase painting
From the second half of the 7th century to the beginning of the 5th century BC A new style was introduced with the actual black-figure vase painting. Human figures are increasingly represented. The compositional schemes change. Binge scenes, battle scenes, mythological scenes from the Heraklesage and the Trojan War are popular motifs. As in the orientalizing phase, the figures' silhouettes are painted with slip or gloss on the leather-dry, unfired clay. The fine details are carved out with a graver. The neck area or the bottom are marked by patterns such as a. with tendril palmette ornaments. When fired, the ground turns red, while the gloss tone turns black. For the first time, Corinth also used white as a color, especially to set off the skin of female figures.
Other ceramic production centers, such as Athens , adopted the Corinthian style in their products. Athens even trumped from around 570 BC. Corinth in the quality of its vases and in the scale of production. The corresponding vessels are referred to as Attic black-figure ceramics .
For the first time, various painters and potters can now be captured and proudly begin to sign their works. One of the most famous artists of this time is Exekias . Other artists of importance are Pasiades and Chares . From 530 BC With the development of the red-figure style, the black-figure style becomes increasingly meaningless. However, the so-called Panathenaic price amphoras , which were awarded to the winner in sporting competitions, the so-called Panathenae , were also used in the 5th century BC. Chr. Continued in black-figure technique. At the end of the 4th century BC The style even experienced a brief revival in Etruscan vase production .
Red-figure vase painting
Around 530 BC Vases in the red-figure style were first produced. The Andokides painter is generally considered to be the inventor of this technique . In reverse of the previously given color scheme, the black figure outlines were not applied, but the background was blackened, leaving out the figures to be represented. The finest internal drawings could be drawn into the recessed figures with individual bristles. Different consistencies of the slip allowed shades of brown. In the early days of the style, these opposites were played with by creating bilingual vases , some of which were made using the black-figure technique and some using the red-figure technique.
The whole spectrum of mythological scenes, but also depictions from everyday life, from the lives of women and workshops were shown. Complicated representations of horse and carts, architectures, three-quarter views and rear views were called up in order to bring a hitherto unknown realism into the representation. The signatures of painters are now often used, even if the pottery signatures still predominate. ἐποίησεν (epóiesen - es / he made ) usually referred to the potter, while the painters signed ἔγραψεν (égrapsen - es / he drew ). If the potter was also the painter, both phrases could occur. Thanks to these inscriptions, many vessels could be assigned to individual painters, giving a certain overview of their work and development.
Already in the 5th century BC Important workshops arose in southern Italy that used this style and competed with Attic workshops. Others also tried to copy this style, but mostly only had local significance.
White-ground vase painting
White-ground vessels were initially given a white base color, on which black, red-figure or multi-colored scenes were painted. This technique was mainly used with lekythae, aryballoi and alabastrons .
Gnathia vases
Gnathi vases, named after the first site Gnathia in Apulia , came around 370/360 BC. Chr. On. These are the only products of sub-Italian vase production that were widely used in mainland Greece and beyond. The vessels are characterized by the use of white, yellow, orange, red, brown, green and other colors on a black-varnished background. Lucky symbols, cultic devices, plant motifs characterize the paintings, which were made from the late 4th century BC onwards. Mostly only in white. Production continued until the middle of the 3rd century BC. Sustained.
Canosiner vases
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Around 300 BC A purely locally limited production of vessels called Canosiner vases, which were decorated with water-soluble, non-flammable colors on a white background, arose in Canosa, Apulia. It was a product that was produced solely for the cult of the dead and as grave goods. In addition to the painting, the vessels are characterized by large, round plastic figures that were placed on the vessel bodies. The goods were sold during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. Manufactured.
Centuriper vases
As with the Canosiner vases, the trade in vases from the Sicilian Centuripe was limited to the purely local market. The vessels were usually composed of several parts and were not usable. They were only used as grave goods. The painting was kept in pastel tones, pale pink backgrounds, large-format figures in different colored garments decorated the vessels, which were mostly richly decorated with appliqués in relief. Sacrificial scenes, farewells, and the cult of the dead were subjects of the presentation.
Centers of vase painting
The most important centers of Greek pottery production and vase painting is next to Attica with its center of Athens especially Corinth . But vases are also known that came from Boeotia and Laconia .
Greek pottery and vase painting also became known in southern Italy through the Greek colonies in southern Italy. Since the 8th century BC Greek pottery was imitated in Italy. Greek potters and vase painters may also have emigrated there. From the 4th century BC A style of its own that was independent of Greek models developed in southern Italy. The Lower Italian vases are often characterized by their size and the rich decor, in which white and red colors were also used.
Scenes from the Greek sagas of gods and heroes, but also everyday scenes, served as motifs. Wedding rites or the life of the athletes have been passed down through many vase depictions. There are also large numbers of erotic representations. As a special form South Italian vases apply Naïskosvasen for their eponymous motif, which refers to the cult of death and burial.
Manufacture and workshops of ancient Greek vases
The manufacture of antique ceramics can be traced back to clay analyzes, excavations of antique workshops, comparisons with modern pottery and evaluations of vase pictures. A number of Corinthian clay tablets depict scenes from the lives of potters and painters. Pottery workshops are also depicted on a total of 16 Attic vases and a Boeotian skyphos .
Manufacturing
The tone
For the time being, clay extraction is of great importance for production. It is a weathered rock. This was often washed away from the place of origin and mixed with other elements. The added elements determine the color of the clay after firing. Corinthian clay took on a yellowish, Attic a reddish and Lower Italian clay a gray-brown color. The clay had to be freed from impurities before processing. The clay was soaked or slurried in a large basin in the workshop. The coarse clay sank to the ground and the remaining organic impurities rose to the surface. The thick clay sludge was then diverted to a second basin, where the excess water evaporated. Finally the clay was cut out and stored moist for a long time. The process of putrefaction (also known as “aging”) during storage made the clay smoother. Too greasy (soft) clays had to be made firmer (hardened) with sand or ground ceramic before processing. Since there is hardly any emaciation in the figured vases of Athens , these vessels were made with a particularly well-aged clay.
The shaping
After the clay had the right consistency, it was thoroughly kneaded with the feet ( Herodotus II 36) and divided into individual pieces. The clay was placed on the potter's wheel and centered so that there were no fluctuations when turning. The turntable has existed in Greece since the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. A literary description provides the Iliad (XVIII 599-601). The potter's wheel was turned by a sitting or crouching assistant, which is evidenced by numerous vase pictures.
After centering on the potter's wheel, the body of the vessel was turned from the clay. If the vessel was higher than the potter's arm, it was made up of several parts. Finished parts were cut off from the turntable with a string, which can be proven by traces. Vessel feet, handles and appliqués (such as masks in relief) were molded separately and glued on with thin clay. The finished turned vessels were placed in a dry and shady place to dry slowly in order to avoid cracks due to drying too quickly. As soon as the clay was leather-hard, the vessel was "turned off" on the potter's wheel. The potter cut off the excess clay and provided the mouths and feet with the sharp edges typical of ancient vessels.
decoration
The vessels were painted before they were fired. The vessel was first wiped with a damp cloth and then coated with a very thinned gloss shade which gave the clay base a reddish color after firing. Clay slips or other earth colors were often used for this. The vessels were either painted on the potter's wheel or the vase painter held them carefully on his lap. This painting process is confirmed by numerous vase pictures, test firings and unfinished pieces.
In the case of geometric, orientalizing and black-figure vases, the figures were probably applied with a brush. In the late Geometric period, white cover paint was used on some vases, which is often peeled off and reveals details that the painter wanted to hide from the viewer. The incision of the vessels was particularly characteristic of the black-figure painting and was probably copied from the working methods of the engraving-making metalworkers. The painters used tools such as a sharp metal pen to scratch. Since the protogeometric era, compasses have also been used to construct concentric semicircles and circles. From the Middle Protocorinthian period, preliminary drawings can be traced, which were made with a pointed piece of wood or a sharp metal instrument. These scratches were barely visible after firing. Red-figure vase painters often sketched the representation first. With some vessels it can be proven that the finished pictures do not match the sketches. A good example of this is a neck amphora by the Cleophrades Painter , on which a satyr is depicted with a spear and lance, but which was originally supposed to be holding a breastplate. Unfinished red-figure vase pictures show that the painters outlined their preliminary drawings with a strip up to 4 millimeters wide. This stripe can also be detected on finished vases. The interior drawing was done with different lines. In order to clearly emphasize the outline of the body, limbs and hair, relief lines (raised lines made of black gloss tone) were used. These relief lines can also be seen in black-figure vessels. The remaining details were drawn with deep black or diluted to brown clay. Finally, the background, and the inside of the open vessels, was colored black with a thick brush.
There are also inscriptions on the vessels: the potter's or painter's signatures, inscribed names to explain what is depicted and Kalos inscriptions. Occasionally there are also signs scratched on the bottom of the vessel. Sometimes this was used to add the price, such as a large beta , or the incision served as a manufacturer's mark.
Burning process
After complete drying, the vessels could be fired. Permanent and temporary ovens were used in ancient times. The ovens were built by the potters themselves from field stones and bricks and had different diameters as required. They were partially embedded in the earth to make it easier to load the combustion chamber and to retain heat. The ovens had a round or rectangular floor plan and a dome with a vent hole in the middle. On one side was the insert opening to set up the ceramic in the firing chamber. This opening was bricked up before burning. On the other side was the poking hole with the poking neck. Above the Schürkammer (hell) was the perforated tennis, a perforated floor, which was supported with pillars. A second perforated ceiling was placed under the dome to slow the rising hot air. The vessels in the combustion chamber were placed close to each other and clay wedges or clay rings were supposed to prevent the cargo from slipping. Vessels of the same shape were also placed inside one another, which is evidenced by the ring-shaped discoloration on the inside of antique vases. The room in Hell was also used for firing undecorated pottery. Since the firing process was dangerous and associated with false fires , potters hung tablets and disastrous masks on their stoves.
Ceramic decorated with figures had to be fired in adjustable ovens at temperatures of up to 900 ° C using the so-called iron reduction technique. The color was created through repeated oxidation and reduction of the iron. The fine clay slip was rich in illite and caked or sintered more easily at high heat than the clay on the vessel wall. The firing process in the production of black and red-figure ceramics consisted of three phases and is called three-phase firing or three-stage firing .
The three-phase fire
First phase:
The various iron oxides present in the clay are converted into red iron oxide (Fe 2 O 3 , iron (III) oxide) by an ample supply of air during the firing at a temperature of around 900 ° C. This stage lasted up to 9 hours.
Second phase:
This phase lasted only 5 to 10 minutes. Wet fuel was thrown on the fire to create smoke. The poke hole and the flue were closed and the ferric oxide was thus deprived of oxygen. This reduction resulted in the formation of black iron (II, III) oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ). The whole jar turned black.
Third phase:
In this last phase, the poke hole and the flue were opened again and the iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) of the unsintered particles of the vessel clay was oxidized again to red iron (III) oxide (Fe 2 O 3 ). The fine, black clay slip of the painting was already baked in the heat like a glaze. As a result, the oxygen could not combine with the black iron (II, III) oxide trapped in it, and the painting remained black, while the rest of the clay in the vessel turned red again.
workshops
Ancient potteries varied considerably in size and structure. There were wandering potters who met the needs of small rural communities. Most of the time all they needed was usable clay, a few tools, and a portable pottery wheel. Coarse goods were often burned in open fires. Corinth's most famous pottery district was west of the agora and some distance from the city center. On the basis of workshop waste, the existence of several workshops can be attested, which were located in the outskirts and on the forum. Potters were usually not only specialized in one type of goods and, in addition to vases, also made clay figures and roof tiles. There were clay deposits in the immediate vicinity and on the slopes of Akrokorinth Castle. The choice of location for workshops was not only dependent on the clay deposits, but also on the availability of fuel and the accessibility of the marketplace. Since Corinthian potteries were located near good farmland, it is believed that these were also landowners and farmed.
In Athens the most famous pottery district was the Kerameikos , who got its name from the patron saint of potters. The potters in Athens could not always mine clay themselves and were therefore dependent on suppliers. Clay deposits in the vicinity of Athens were found in Cape Kolias , 15 km away , in the Illissos area and in Marousi. Ceramics of lesser quality decorated with figures were also produced outside the center (academy, Odos Lenormant), as evidenced by pottery waste.
Construction of the workshops
One workshop consisted of a residential building with a spacious courtyard with rain-protected rooms, shelves for drying ceramics, tools, fuel and clay, pottery wheels, kilns, basins for mudding the clay and a good water supply. It is likely that several workshops have shared ovens, wells and cisterns. Little is known about the number of workers in a workshop. Plato (Politeia, 467A) mentions that potters trained their children in their trade. From this it can be concluded that ancient potteries were family businesses.
Signatures on antique vessels seem to confirm this: the potters Tleson and Ergoteles signed with the formula: "Son of Nearchus". Nearchus himself signed as a painter and potter. Signatures on vases decorated with figures are rarely found. Around 900 of around 70,000 known vases are signed. Potters known by name are z. B. Nicosthenes and Exekias . It also happens that vases are signed twice. If it was not the same person, the potter and painter of the vases were indicated separately.
Modern reception
The patrons and humanists of the Italian Renaissance knew not only about the Etruscan and Italian, but also about the Greek origin of the vases, as evidenced by the correspondence of Angelo Poliziano. Nevertheless, even after the work of Johann Joachim Winckelmann , who emphasized the Greek origin of the Etruscan and Italic finds, the general term Etruscan remained dominant until the middle of the 19th century. It was only with the excavation work that began there after the liberation of Greece that the origin and assignment of the vases could be clearly identified. Since the 19th century, Greek vase painting has been an intensively researched subject of classical archeology .
What is most astonishing is the lack of reception of antique vase painting in the art of the Renaissance, whereas vessels made of stone and metal were eagerly imitated and antique wall painting provided decisive impulses for painting of the High Renaissance and Mannerism as well as for ceramic painting. One reason may be the lack of color in the Greek vases, which even in their heyday could not compete with the splendor of colors and depth of the ancient wall painting. Compared to the creative possibilities of modern majolica from Urbino , Faenza etc. with a constantly expanding color palette on tin glaze, the ancient reduction to red and black had to appear pale and gloomy. The material value and thus the representative, decorative function were also decisive for the assessment. This is evidenced by what is probably the first reproduction of an interior in Italian literature in Novella XLII by Matteo Bandello, where in the elegant house of a Roman courtesan a shelf with bellissimi vasi di varie e preziose materie formati, con pietre alabastrine, di porfido, di serpentino e di mille altre specie is described. This principle of decoration obviously also determined the general furnishing of urban Roman palaces with antique vases made of marble and semi-precious stones, sculptures made of marble and bronze and busts - often made of different colored marble. Only in the Palazzo Chigi Odescalchi are isolated Greek ceramic vases used as eye-catchers. Otherwise, Greek vases do not appear on still lifes or in the Chambers of Wonder, which at least had a separate department for antiquitas .
Reception in neoclassicism of the 18th and 19th centuries is also modest. From 1770 onwards, the Wedgwood Porcelain Manufactory (see also Wedgwoodware or Portland Ceramics ), the Naples Royal Porcelain Manufactory and the Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory began producing entire table services in the shape and decor of Etruscan ceramics. Particularly noteworthy is a magnificent vase by the Sèvres manufactory from 1806 in the Louvre , which glorifies Napoléon's victory at Austerlitz. A replica of an Etruscan grave with ceramic vases from the production of the English manufacturer Copeland was shown at the London World's Fair in 1851 . However, none of this resulted in a lasting change in taste or even an influence on the design language of utility ceramics, because here, too, ancient vase painting cannot hold its own against the now extremely refined color nuances of ceramic and porcelain painting . There are two pairs of “Pietra dura” tables designed around 1785 in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence with almost photographically exact representations according to the principles of a Cartesian tableau of ceramics from the grand ducal collections: one pair shows a range of contemporary tastes European and Asian porcelains; the other pair is a collection of Greek, Etruscan and Lower Italian vases that is completely new in this breadth and represents the new taste of the time. The decors of the first couple, which have degenerated into kitsch, have remained flavor-creating to this day. The interior architecture of the Robert Adams type does not include the Greek vases in the decoration.
The postmodern interior design, on the other hand, provides a real aesthetic reassessment of Greek vases. The otherwise notorious arbitrariness of postmodernism allows an unconventional, playful integration as an absolute, room-filling one-off: a single vase on a white marble column next to a Napoleonic-inspired tabouret made of simple round iron with a zebra cover in front of an empty gray marble wall with a pale, glowing neo-baroque The white framed wall lamp can then unfold its full beauty and color in such a sober and minimalist design.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annamaria Giusti (ed.): Splendori di pietre dure: l'arte di corte nella Firenze dei granduchi . Giunti, Florenz 1988, pp. 204-205, ISBN 88-09-20075-6
- ↑ Melanie Fleischmann - Mick Hales: Neoclassic. Modern living with antiques . Mosaik Verlag, Munich 1989, p. 97, ISBN 3-570-04466-1
literature
- John D. Beazley : Attic Black-figure Vase-painters . Oxford 1956 [ = ABV ]
- John D. Beazley: Attic Red-figure Vase-painters . 2nd ed. Oxford 1963 [= ARV² ]
- John D. Beazley: The Development of Attic Black-figure . Rev. ed. Dietrich von Bothmer and Mary B. Moore. Berkeley 1986. ISBN 0-520-05593-4 .
- John Boardman : Black-Figure Vases from Athens. A handbook (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 1). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1977, ISBN 3-8053-0233-9 .
- John Boardman: Red-Figure Vases from Athens. The archaic time (= cultural history of the ancient world. Vol. 4). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-8053-0234-7 .
- John Boardman: Red-Figure Vases from Athens. The classical time (= cultural history of the ancient world. Vol. 48). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1262-8 .
- John Boardman: Ancient Ceramics. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Italy. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1985, ISBN 3-451-20474-6 .
- Darrell A. Amyx : Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period . University of California Press, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-03166-0
- John Boardman: The history of Greek vases: potters, painters and pictures. Thames & Hudson, London 2007. ISBN 978-0-500-28593-0 .
- Robert J. Charleston: Pottery. A style story spanning 4 millennia . Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-921452-30-9 .
- Friederike Fless : Red-figure ceramic as a commodity. Acquisition and use of Attic vases in the Mediterranean and Pontic regions during the 4th century. v. Chr. , Leidorf, Rahden 2002 (International Archeology, Vol. 71) ISBN 3-89646-343-8
- Roland Hampe , Erika Simon : A thousand years of early Greek art. Hirmer, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7774-3130-3 .
- AW Johnston: Trademarks on Greek vases , Warminster 1979. ISBN 0-85668-123-7 .
- Norbert Kunisch : Explanations on Greek vase painting. Cologne 1996.
- Donna C. Kurtz : Athenian White Lekythoi. Patterns and Painters. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1975.
- Thomas Mannack : Greek vase painting . 2., through and bibliographically updated edition, von Zabern, Darmstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-8053-4462-3 .
- Penelope A. Mountjoy : Mycenaean Pottery. An Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993.
- Eberhard Paul : Ancient ceramics. Discovery and research of painted clay pots in Greece and Italy. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1982.
- Wolfgang Schiering : The Greek clay pots - shape, purpose and form change. 2nd, significantly changed and expanded edition. Mann, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-7861-1325-4 .
- Erika Simon , Max Hirmer : The Greek vases. 2nd, revised edition. Hirmer, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7774-3310-1 .
- Arthur D. Trendall : Red-figure vases from southern Italy and Sicily. Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 1991 ISBN 3-8053-1111-7 (translation of the English original "Red figure vases of South Italy and Sicily" by Norbert Kunisch )
- Rudolf Wachter : Non-Attic Greek Vase Inscriptions. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001.
