V21 Odysseus and the Sirens Krater

Odysseus, the Roman Ulysses, became lost on his way home to Ithaca after the end of the Trojan War. He suffered many trials and tests from the gods testing his strength of character, as well as his loyalty. One of the tests was to pass the Isle of Sirens, where seafarers where lured to their death while listening to the sirens’ song. Odysseus kneaded wax until it was soft and plugged his crew’s ears. He then had them tie him to the mast of his ship, as he was curious to hear the sirens’ song.
They passed the island and the sirens sang. Odysseus was so overcome with longing to hear more and move closer to the island, that he pleaded with his men to sail for the shore. But they couldn’t hear their captain and continued sailing- out of the range of the sirens’ spell.
The red figure style of vase painting arose in Athens after 530 b.c., following the black figure style of vase decoration. While the black figure style depicted black figures on a ochre, white or red background, the red figure style reversed the design, showing red figures on a usually black or white background.
Red figure painting allowed increased realism for the artist. First, the realism of lighter colored human bodies against a dark background. Second, more intricate details such as strands of hair, drapes of clothing and musculature could be added with fine black lines over the red bodies. Thirdly, the illusion of three dimensions could more easily be created by the overlapping and foreshortening permitted by the red figure style. As evident in the design, red figure enabled artists to experiment with poses of twisted bodies and bodies in motion, previously unattempted with the black figure style. Composition matured, following the development of sculpture at the time, from the static poses of the 6th century, to the movements depicted in classical sculpture and art of the 5th century and later.
In creating red figure vases, the outline of the figures and objects in the scene were first outlined in black or diluted black directly on the terracotta. The vase area outside the outlines was then filled in with black. The black paint used often appeared dark brown after firing. What remained was the natural terracotta color of the vase within the outlines, to which red paint and black line details were added.