Art Institute of Chicago

Pelike (Storage Jar)

Greek; Athens

Date

about 510-500 BCE

Medium

terracotta, black-figure with applied paint

Culture

Greece

Department

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This ancient storage vessel is decorated in the black-figure technique, which 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 intended to be black. For the figural scene the silhouettes of the figures and other elements were painted in gloss, sometimes following the lines of a preliminary sketch scratched into the surface. Using a sharp tool, the artist created details by incising through the gloss to the light clay ground below. Colors such as purple-red and white, made from a gloss with mineral pigments, were then added. After a three-stage firing process applying alternately less and more oxygen, the gloss turned black. In its finest form, it was quite shiny. On this vessel, those techniques are used by the artist to create lively scenes in which a woman dances playfully with a drape of fabric, perhaps her cloak. Male musicians accompany her with Greek instruments including a Barbiton (the string instrument which looks like a small harp) and an aulos (the wind instrument shaped like a doubled flute). The inquisitive dog adds to the sense of movement and rhythm within the scene.

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