Archaeological Museum of Bologna

Around 530 BC Athenian potters invented a “revolutionary” decorative technique that gave to the city the absolute dominance on the Mediterranean ceramic market: red-figure style.
Unlike the oldest black-figure technique, in which the figures were completely filled in with a slip and the internal details were incised, with the red-figure technique the vase painter traced only the outline of the figures and then painted the entire ground, leaving various elements of the depiction in the base color of the clay. In this way the craftsman had greater freedom in the definition of anatomical details and in the rendering of the clothes and facial features, which could be done with black lines that varied in thickness and by applying thinner or denser paint.
The Attic pottery was intended to be used during the symposium, for the preparation and consumption of wine. The symposium was an important moment of collective life, communion and at the same time show: wine consumption was associated with music, dancing, poetry.
The vases for wine were not simply table accessories; the rich depictions painted on these products became formidable vehicles of images and cultural transmission.
The wine was transported in amphorae and pelikai in the hall of the symposium; to pour it were used ladles (kyathoi) and jugs (oinochoai). For Greeks, the wine should never be consumed pure, but it was mixed with water in large containers, called craters. The drink was then offered to the guests in the cups, called, according to the form, kylikes, kantharoi and skyphoi.