Greek vases

Painted people and animals have to fit around a vase’s swelling body, narrow neck and handles. In Room 14, hunting, dancing and stories about gods become compositions made for those curved surfaces. Compare black figures against the reddish clay with red figures set against a dark background. In red-figure painting, the figure is left in the colour of the clay, and details can be painted within it. That change gave painters different ways to describe bodies and clothing. A vase signed by the potter Andokides brings a named maker into the room. Potting and painting were skilled parts of producing a vessel, and decoration also had to work with its shape. Try following one figure around the pot until a handle interrupts the scene. The vessel’s form keeps directing where the story can go.