New techniques in vase painting 2
Black-glazed pottery appeared in Athens in the 6th century BC. Similarly to the painted vases of the period, this monochrome shiny black ware (1–4) was exported en masse, which resulted in the appearance in Italy of local workshops producing black-glazed vases (5–8).
In the second quarter of the fourth century BC, a new vase-painting (the so-called Gnathia ware) technique appeared in Apulian red-figure workshops. The body of the vases was fired completely black, yielding a surface that was then decorated in a variety of colours, especially red, yellow and white (9–17). The vases were chiefly adorned with floral and geometric motifs, but isolated figures were also present, as well as motifs such as the theatre mask (13), birds (11–12), incense burner (9), or a jug and wreath (11). The female head encircled with floral scrolls (17) was a motif already characteristic of Apulian red-figure vase painting; the painted decoration is here complemented with a plastically modelled female head. The flutes encircling the body of the vessel, like the painted handles of the cup (15), evoke metal models.
Apulian black-glazed pottery decorated with vivid colours was popular in South Italy (cf. After red-figure pottery, fig. 4) and Etruria, and was widely diffused in the Mediterranean: it enjoyed special popularity in Egypt.
1. Black-glazed oenochoe. Athens, 5th century BC 
2. Black-glazed skyphos. Athens, 500–475 BC 
3. Black-glazed skyphos. Athens, 475–450 BC 
4. Black-glazed footed cup. Athens, 425–400 BC 
5. Black-glazed footed cup. Italy, late 5th – early 4th century BC 
6. Black-glazed kylix. Apulia, 400–375 BC 
7. Black-glazed skyphos. Italy, 350–300 BC 
8. Black-glazed oenochoe. Apulia, Kr. e. 4. század vége – 3. század eleje 
9. Footed alabastron decorated with a ribbon and an incense burner, 325–300 BC 
10. Cup, 350–325 BC 
11. Jug decorated with a wreath, bird and jar, end of the 4th – first half of the 3rd century BC 
12. Skyphos with owl and swan, 350–325 BC 
13. Oenochoe with female comic mask, 350–325 BC 
14. Oenochoe, 320–290 BC 
15. Cup with painted handles, 300–275 BC 
16. Four-bodied pyxis, with one extant lid, early 3rd century BC 
17. Oenochoe, 325–275 BC 