Great Skyphos. Ancient Greece, Attic, late 6th... Lot 123

Great Skyphos. Ancient Greece, Attic, late 6th century BC. Black-figure pottery. Thermoluminescence test attached. Restored. Measurements: 15.5 x 34.5 x 25 cm. Attic Skyphos of black figures with scenes of chariots running a race. The aligned rhythm of the horses' legs and the figure of the coachman with the reins offer an image of elegant dynamism. The procession of figures and horses is presented in a central band around the vase. It is decorated with the black-figure ware technique, based on the use of a transparent glaze which, when fired, acquired an intense, glossy black hue. The motifs were therefore invisible before firing, which meant that the painters had to work entirely from memory, unable to see their previous work. Once the piece was fired, the unglazed areas remained with the reddish hue of the clay, while the glazed, "painted" areas took on a dense, glossy black colour. The black-figure technique was introduced in Corinth around 700 BC, and was adopted by Attic artists in the Orientalising period (725-625 BC). This was the beginning of the great series of black-figure ceramics, which had its main centre in Athens and continued until the beginning of the 5th century BC.