Good, particularly red, clay was in demand for superior goods, and of this the promontory of Kolias, near Athens, furnished an unlimited supply. The potter's wheel was in use at a very early period. On it were formed both large and small vessels, with the difference, however, that of the former the foot, neck, and handles were formed separately, and afterwards attached, as was also the case in small vessels with widely curved handles.
In order to intensify the red color the vessel was frequently glazed and afterwards dried and burnt on the oven. The outlines of the figures to be painted on the vase were either cut into the red clay and filled up with a brilliant black varnish, or the surface itself was covered with the black varnish up to the contours, in which case these stood out in the natural red color of the clay.
The first mentioned process was the older of the two, and greater antiquity is, therefore, to be assigned to vessels with black figures on a red ground. In both kinds of paintings draperies or the muscles of nude figures were further indicated by the incision of additional lines of the color of the surface into the figures. Other colors, like dark red, violet, or white, which on close investigation have been recognized as dissolvable, were put on after the second burning of the vessel.
About the historic development of pottery we know nothing beyond what may be guessed from the differences of style. As we said before, figures of a black or dark-brown color painted on the natural pale red or yellowish color of the clay indicate greater antiquity. The black figures were occasionally painted over in white or violet. These vessels are mostly small and somewhat compressed in form; they are surrounded with parallel stripes of pictures of animals, plants, fabulous beings, or arabesques. The drawings show an antiquated stiff type, similar to those on the vessels recently discovered at Nineveh and Babylon, whence the influence of Oriental on Greek art may be inferred. This archaic style, like the strictly hieratic style in sculpture, was retained together with a freer treatment at a more advanced period. As a first step of development we notice the combination of animals and arabesques, at first with half-human, half-animal figures, soon followed by compositions belonging mostly to a certain limited circle of myths. The treatment of figures shows rigidity in the calm, and violence in the active, positions. The Doric forms of letters and words on many vases of this style, whether found in Greece or Italy, no less than the uniformity of their _technique_, indicate _one_ place of manufacture, most likely the Doric Corinth, celebrated for her potteries; on the other hand, the inscriptions in Ionian characters and written in the Ionian dialect on vessels prove their origin in the manufactures of the Ionian Euboea and her colonies. The pictures on these vases, also painted in stripes, extend the mythological subject-matter beyond the Trojan cycle to the oldest epical myths, each story being represented in its consecutive phases.