The so-called Dayton Painter

A Day in the Life

What goes inside?

This vessel is interesting to look at, but it was also made to be used. The ancient Greeks made a variety of terra-cotta vessels for different purposes. Amphorae (plural of amphora) have two handles and a neck that is narrower than the body.

You can learn about other kinds of vessels, including their shapes and uses, from the Classical Art Research Centre at Oxford University here.

Tools and Techniques

How It’s Made

Making decorated clay vessels like this amphora required many steps, including refining the clay, forming the vessel, painting the decoration, and firing in a complicated three-stage process to create the unique black-on-red finish. See how it all comes together in the following video from the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, www.getty.edu, © J. Paul Getty Trust

Transcript:

Greek vases were made of terra-cotta, or baked clay. Before the clay could be used for pottery, pebbles and other impurities had to be removed. First, the pottery mixed the raw clay with water in large outdoor pools to make a thick, silty liquid. This liquid clay stood until the heavier impurities had settled to the bottom. The refined liquid was then drained off into a second pool. The potter repeated this settling process several times. The pool was then left to evaporate in the sun, leaving behind the refined clay. The final step in preparing the clay for potting was called wedging: the pottery systematically compressed and folded the clay, making it more malleable and mixing together any parts that may have settled into layers. The clay was now ready for use.

Most Greek vases were thrown, or formed, on the potter’s wheel. The complex shapes of Greek pottery often require that a vase be thrown in pieces and then assembled. For example, to make a kylix, or cup, the pottery first centered the clay on the wheel. When it stopped wobbling, the pottery began a central hole. Pressure from the potter’s fingers inside the hole gradually widened this opening and formed the bowl of the cup. Aside from the wheel, the potter’s main tools were his hands, although a wet sponge was often used to smooth the surface. To make the foot of the cup, the potter again centered the clay, drew it up, and then hollowed out the stem. The next day, when the formed pieces had dried slightly, the bowl of the cup was trimmed with a metal shaver, and received a final smoothing. The potter used wet clay to bond the separately made bowl and foot and then smoothed over the join. Next, the potter stretched out lengths of clay and bent them into handles. Again using wet clay, the pottery attached the handles to the bowl, often roughening the joining surfaces to increase the bond. The vase was now ready to be decorated.

Athenian vase painters experimented with a number of different methods of vase decoration. To create a vase in the black-figure technique, that is, with black figures against a red background, the vase painter first sketched the outline of the design, in this case a dolphin, onto the surface of the vessel. Then, using a highly refined liquid clay as paint, the vase painter filled in the outline, creating a silhouette. When applied, the clay paint was almost the same color as the surface of the vase, but with firing, it would turn back. The vase painter next used a sharp point to scratch internal details through the silhouette. The vase was then ready for the kiln.

The contrasting red-and-black color scheme of Athenian pottery was the result of a difficult three-stage firing process. Using wood fired kilns, or ovens, vases were heated to about 800 degrees centigrade in an oxygen-rich environment, causing the whole vase to turn red. Next, the potter closed off the vents of the kiln and added green wood and leafy branches, creating an oxygen-poor environment. As a result, the whole vase turned black. At the same time, the kiln temperature was raised, causing the thin, painted layer of decorative clay to become glossy and non-porous. Finally, the kiln was allowed to slowly cool and the potter reopened the vents, letting oxygen into the kiln again. In this stage, the unpainted areas of the vessels returned to their warm red color. But the glossy areas, which could not absorb oxygen, remained black.

Behind the Scenes

Look Closer

Decoration All Around

The ancient Greeks enjoyed decorating vessels like this amphora with elaborate designs and scenes, often involving mythological figures. You can investigate these in the interactive photo below, or on the object itself if you are in the galleries.

One side has the god Apollo accompanied by two women while he plays a stringed instrument called a cithara, a kind of lyre. Apollo is the god of music and poetry, among other things. The other side has man in a quadriga, a chariot with four horses side-by-side. Notice how different colors distinguish the gender of the figures.

Just for Kids

Create!

An amphora is a vase with two handles, a narrow neck, and used for storing food or water. The amphora is often decorated with scenes of Greek mythology. This amphora shows Apollo, the god of music and poetry. The opposite side shows a figure riding in a chariot with four horses.

Think about your favorite activities. Are you like Apollo and enjoy music and poetry? Or are you more like Hermes, god of sports. Print the image at home , and draw what you enjoy doing on the amphora. After you are finished drawing, describe what activity you drew and why you enjoy doing that activity. What would you store in your amphora? An iPod with your favorite songs or maybe a ball and bat?

Signs & Symbols

Dig Deeper

Arts Intersected

The Sculpture Speaks

Did You Know?

Expert Opinion

Look Around

About the Artist

A Painter from Dayton?

The painter of this amphora is known as “The Dayton Painter” even though she or he lived in Greece over 2000 years ago. Experts will sometimes “name” an anonymous artist based on the current location of a work by that artist, and this will serve to identify other works by the same hand. For example, an amphora in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which you can see here, is attributed to “The Dayton Painter.” How was The DAI’s singled out? Listen as Dr. Sally Struthers, Professor Emeritus at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, tells the story in the following video.

Transcript:

I’m Dr. Sally Struthers, a professor of art history at Sinclair Community College, here to discuss how this vase became a “name vase.” On a cold January evening in 1964, 400 people turned out to hear eminent archaeologist and art historian Dr. Dietrich von Bothmer discuss an ancient Greek vase—a type of storage jar called an amphora—that The Dayton Art Institute had purchased the year before. Dr. von Bothmer was known as a connoisseur of Greek vases. A connoisseur is one who understands the details of a style and can discriminate the subtle stylistic traits that identify the hand of a particular artist. Von Bothmer travelled the world searching for ancient vases. He took detailed photographs and created an enormous archive of images that he kept in file cabinets, but he also retained as mental images. He could look at a broken shard of vase and recognize that it was part of a vase in the collection of the Louvre or the British Museum, as though he was piecing together jigsaw puzzles out of broken parts of ancient vases. As von Bothmer discussed The Dayton Art Institute’s prized new acquisition, he pointed out the distinctive style of chariot scene on one side and the image of the god Apollo on the other. He noted that the potter and painter were usually two separate artisans in ancient Greece, and that most ancient Greek works were not signed by the painter. To give the unknown artist of the amphora now in The Dayton Art Institute a name, he called him the Dayton Painter, because the vase was in Dayton, Ohio. Because of this, The Dayton Art Institute’s black figure amphora is known as the name vase, which helps to identify other works by the same hand. Once von Bothmer recognized and articulated the style of the Dayton Painter the name stuck, and the hand of the same artist was recognized in another amphora that you can see in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

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