How to Read a Greek Vase: Shape, Technique, Scene and Maker

A painted Greek pot in a museum case can look like a puzzle. There are two colors, crowded figures, a shape you can't name and a label full of words like hydria, kylix and pelike. It is tempting to glance at it and move on.

Most vases can be read with the same four questions, asked in the same order. What was this pot for? How was it painted? Who is in the scene? And what does the label, or the pot itself, tell you about who made it?

This guide works through those questions using vases whose museum pages explain them in plain words, from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art. You don't need Greek, and you don't need to memorize dozens of shapes. You do need to look slowly.

Question one: what was the pot for?

Start with the shape, because Greek shape names are really job descriptions. Museums often print the job right in the title, such as "Hydria (Water Jar)" or "Pelike (Storage Jar)." A few shapes turn up again and again.

• Hydria. The Art Institute describes a large hydria that held water used to dilute wine for the symposium, the Greek drinking party. Its horizontal handles made it easier to carry, while the vertical handle at the back was used for pouring. Two sideways handles plus one upright handle is a good hint that you are looking at a hydria.
• Krater. A vessel for mixing wine with water. Cleveland labels its kraters "Mixing Vessel," and the column-krater is one common form.
• Kylix. The Art Institute calls the kylix the most popular type of wine cup: a round foot, a thin stem, a wide bowl and two handles. Inside, a painted scene in a circular frame, the tondo, was gradually revealed to the drinker as the wine was consumed. Always look inside a cup.
• Amphora. A storage jar, made in many variations. Cleveland notes that one amphora shape was a trademark of a single potter, Nikosthenes.

Knowing the job can help you read the picture. Cleveland's column-krater, a mixing vessel, shows a revel on one side, a fitting subject for a party bowl. But pictures are not limited to the pot's use, and myths appear on many shapes.

Question two: black-figure or red-figure?

Next, look at the colors. Many Athenian vases you will meet use one of two techniques, and the museum pages explain both clearly.

Black-figure came first. The Art Institute explains that it was developed in Corinth and used widely during the Archaic period (700–480 BCE). Gloss, a slip made from refined clay, was applied to all areas meant to be black. Figures were painted as silhouettes in gloss, sometimes following a preliminary sketch scratched into the surface. Then the artist used a sharp tool to incise details through the gloss to the light clay below, and added colors such as purple-red and white. A three-stage firing, with alternately less and more oxygen, turned the gloss black.

Red-figure reverses the scheme. According to the Art Institute, it was invented in Athens around 530 BCE. The figures are reserved, left in the color of the clay, and the background is covered with gloss. Contours were drawn with lines of thicker gloss, while drapery, jewelry and anatomy were drawn in diluted, thinner gloss. Both kinds were fired the same way.

So the quick test is simple. Black figures on an orange ground are black-figure. Orange figures on a black ground are red-figure. Then look closer. On black-figure, the fine details are scratched lines. On a black-figure hydria in Chicago, the museum points out how precise incision renders the outline and details of the lion skin Herakles wears. On red-figure, the details are brushed lines, some thick and some faint.

Question three: who is in the scene?

Greek painters relied on attributes, objects that identify a figure. Cleveland's page for a red-figure column-krater identifies Apollo by his lyre and laurel wreath. On the Chicago hydria, the lion skin marks Herakles, shown wrestling Triton, a merman.

Sometimes the painter simply wrote a name. Cleveland describes a small mixing vessel with a pillar inscribed APHRODITE beside a seated woman and Eros. Cleveland notes that such labels are rare on vases. Even this label leaves a question open: scholars debate whether it names the woman as the goddess herself or shows a bride imagining herself as Aphrodite.

Not every inscription names a figure. On the Chicago hydria, the artist wrote "Pythis [is] beautiful," and the museum admits that who Pythis was is another mystery. The same page says the onlookers are likely Nereus and Amphitrite, "but we cannot be certain." That honesty is useful. When a label says "probably" or "perhaps," it is telling you how strong the evidence is.

Finally, walk around the pot. Many vases have two scenes, often marked (A) and (B) in museum titles, and they may be unrelated. Cleveland's column-krater shows Apollo with goddesses and a chariot on one side and a revel on the other. The Chicago hydria adds a third scene on the shoulder: the Judgment of Paris.

Question four: who made it?

A few vases are signed. Cleveland's Nikosthenic amphora carries the potter's name with the verb EPOIESEN, "made." The museum says Nikosthenes signed nearly 150 surviving vases, more than any other named potter or vase-painter.

Most painters, though, are anonymous, and modern scholars gave them names. Cleveland explains that the Cleveland Painter's real name is unknown. The English vase expert Sir John D. Beazley named the artist after the city because the museum's column-krater is the most important of 12 vases by that hand. Chicago's Chicago Painter got his name the same way. The Art Institute says the calm, soft style of its stamnos is a hallmark of the artist and has been used to identify other works by him.

That is why labels so often say "Attributed to." It means a specialist has matched the drawing style to a known hand. It does not mean the artist signed the pot.

A five-minute routine at the case

• Name the shape and guess its job: water, wine, oil, storage or drinking.
• Check the technique: black figures on orange, or orange figures on black. Look for scratched lines.
• Walk around the case. Read side A, side B, the shoulder and the inside of any cup.
• Hunt for attributes and inscriptions, and try to name at least one figure.
• Read the label last, and see whether it agrees with you. Note any "perhaps."

One more thing: some of what you see may be modern. Cleveland notes that the undecorated handle section of its Nikosthenic amphora is modern. Old repairs are part of a vase's story, too.

Key takeaways

• Shape names describe jobs. Hydria, krater, kylix and amphora tell you how a pot was used.
• Black-figure means black silhouettes with scratched details. Red-figure, invented in Athens around 530 BCE, leaves the figures in the color of the clay.
• Figures are identified by attributes, such as Apollo's lyre and Herakles' lion skin, and only sometimes by written names.
• Most painters are anonymous. "Attributed to" names come from modern style analysis, not signatures.
• Read every side of the pot, and treat the museum's "perhaps" as real information.

Sources

• Art Institute of Chicago, Pelike (Storage Jar), about 510–500 BCE
• Art Institute of Chicago, Hydria (Water Jar) attributed to the Leningrad Painter, 470–460 BCE
• Art Institute of Chicago, Hydria (Water Jar) attributed to a painter of the Leagros group, about 515–500 BCE
• Art Institute of Chicago, Kylix (Drinking Cup) attributed to the Penthesilea Painter, about 460 BCE
• Art Institute of Chicago, Stamnos (Mixing Jar) attributed to the Chicago Painter, about 450 BCE
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Red-Figure Column Krater: Apollo and Goddesses with Chariot; Komos, c. 470–460 BCE
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Black-Figure Nikosthenic Amphora, c. 530–510 BCE
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Red-Figure Bell Krater: Aphrodite and Eros, c. 370–360 BCE