The Art of Vase-Painting in Classical Athens

In his new book, Professor Martin Robertson - author of A History of Greek Art (CUP 1975) and A Shorter History of Greek Art (CUP 1981) - draws together the results of a lifetime’s study of Greek vase-painting, tracing the history of figure-drawing on Athenian pottery from the invention of the ‘red-figure’ technique in the later archaic period to the abandonment of figured vase-decoration two hundred years later. The book covers red-figure and also work produced over the same period in the same workshops in black-figure and other techniques, especially that of drawing in outline on a white ground. The book is intended as a companion volume to Sir John Beazley’s The Development of Attic Black-figure (originally published in 1951 by California University Press), and as an examination and defence of Beazley’s methods and achievements. This book is a major contribution to the history of Greek vase-painting and anyone seriously interested in the subject - whether scholar, student, curator, collector or amateur - will find it essential reading.

Preface; Introduction; 1. The beginning of red-figure; 2. A time of ferment: the red-figure Pioneers and their contemporaries; 3. After the Pioneers: red-figure mastery; the beginnings of white-ground; 4. Archaic into classical; 5. Early classical; 6. High classical; 7. Developments from the high classical; 8. The later fifth century; developments into the fourth; 9. The fourth century; Notes; Bibliography and abbreviations; List of illustrations; Index.