Archaeological Museum of Bologna

Around 530 BC Athenian potters introduced a new decorative technique: the red figures. While the oldest black-figure technique included the patterning of the figures and the details realization through graffiti, with the red figures technique the pottery painter painted the background, saving in the base color the various elements of the representation and achieving greater freedom in internal details realization.
A fine example of the results obtained thanks to the introduction of the new technique is this red-figure lekythos, by Douris, a great importance personalities for red figures producing in the first three decades of the 5th century BC. Characteristic of his style is the great precision in the line and in the drawing, the attention to detail with are rendered subjects taken from myth, epic and everyday life. The lekythos - depicting a Nike with spread wings hands a jug and a cup as an offering to a winner athlete - though not being one of the painter masterpieces, equally shows the main features of his production: note the precise and elegant line in the drapery decoration and the effective realization of the athlete naked.

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