White-ground vase painting

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Achilles and Ajax playing a board game on an Attic white-ground lekythos from the Diosphus painter's workshop , around 500 BC BC, today in the Louvre

As a white ground technique is referred to a special form of Greek vase painting , resulting in Attica emerged into a separate genre of Ceramics. In white-ground vase painting, the ceramic is covered with a light, whitish coating of clay slip containing kaolinite . This was used as a picture background in both geometric and archaic times. White-ground vases were made in Ionia , Laconia and the Cyclades , for example . But in Athens alone , alongside black-figure and red-figure vase painting, it developed into an independent genre. For this reason, the term white-ground vase painting generally only refers to these vases. The light coating should probably make the ceramic look more precious and possibly arouse associations with ivory or marble . However, the entire surface of a vessel was never primed completely white. It was not uncommon for white-ground painting to be combined with red-figure painting. Most of them were bowls with a white interior and a red-figure exterior. The white-ground painting is less durable than the black- and red-figure painting, which is why these vases were mainly used as votive and grave vessels.

The development of white-ground vase painting took place parallel to the development of the black and red-figure style. There were five different sub-styles:

  1. Black-figure vase painting on a white background was probably made around 530/25 BC. Introduced in the workshop of the potter Nikosthenes . After a short time, the technology was also adopted by other workshops. The painting technique differs from the usual black-figure style only in the painting surface. The background is rarely pure white, mostly it is slightly yellowish or light beige.
  2. A second form is the monochrome outline drawing. The pictures are not designed by means of cutouts and internal drawings, but rather by outline drawings and internal drawings. It has been used since the end of the 6th century BC. Mainly used on bowls, alabastra and small lekyths . Initially, the outlines of the images were designed with the relief line , but since around 500 BC. Chr. Increasingly with the help of yellow-brown lines. The so-called semi-outline technique connects the first and second techniques, but was only used in the first half of the 5th century BC. BC and almost only used on lekyths and alabastrons.
  3. In the first quarter of the 5th century BC A four-color painting with gloss and earth tones developed in the workshop of the potter Euphronios . Outline drawings with gloss and colored surfaces were combined here. This form is found mainly on pyxides and bowls. Certain details, such as fruits, jewelry, weapon parts or vessels, can be slightly plasticized with clay slip and sometimes be gold-plated. The colors used are limited to red and brown tones, yellow, white and black.
  4. In the early classical Lekythen painting, glossy tone, earth colors and non-ceramic earth colors were combined. This form originated in the second quarter of the 5th century BC. It was developed for painting larger grave cythae that had to do with the grave cult. Here the pictures are mostly made up of colored surfaces. Pure outline drawings can almost only be found in the representation of male bodies. Women's bodies are painted with opaque white, the clothes are depicted with glossy black, earth tones and sometimes also with non-ceramic colors such as vermilion or Egyptian blue . Many of the pictures show scenes from the women's room. Grave images are rare. The most important representative was the Achilles painter .
  5. The fifth style was the polychrome lekytha painting. In the middle of the century it replaced the early classical Lekythe painting. The black gloss tone disappears from the pictures as does the opaque white. Now women's bodies are shown again in pure outline drawings. Non-ceramic earth colors are used more and more. At the same time, the vase painters began working on the Sabouroff painter , instead of using glossy red or black-gray matt colors for the contours. Only the contour drawings are now applied before the fire. This means that the drawings do not last a long time. As a result, they are often no longer or only poorly preserved. The assessment of the colors is therefore often problematic. Above all, grave scenes are shown.

Important painters of the Classical period (5th century BC), in addition to the Achilles Painter and the Sabouroff Painter, are the Thanatos Painter , the Vogel Painter , the Square Painter , the Woman Painter and the Phiale Painter as well as several Representatives of Gruppe R (Reed Group) , including the eponymous reed painter . Towards the end of the century, the first attempts at shadow painting can be observed in the representation of male bodies, which are probably under the influence of panel painting of the time. The group of the Huge Lekythoi , which decorated large grave vases, should be mentioned above all . In the second half of the century, almost exclusively gravekyths were created in the white-ground style. When their production around the year 400 BC Was ended, the white-ground vase painting also ended.

It was not until the Hellenistic era that white-ground ceramic types appeared again and again in different places, some of which were painted monochrome, some polychrome. These include Hâdra vases , Canosiner vases and vases of the Centuripe genus . Lagynoi are often decorated with a white background.

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