Greek Pottery

When studying the bell krater it is easy to pick up on the fact that not only did ancient Greek pottery serve as a functional peice of work, but a decorative piece as well. All of ancienct Greek pottery is known to have been decorated in some form and it usually involves intricate work. This particular bell krater was used for mixing wine and water. It was made out of terracotta clay, which is a red colored clay. It was made around 440 B.C. by an artist known as Attic. It is also a red-figured piece, meaning that the figures were painted on in a red slip and details and the backgrounded were added on with a black slip. There are also black figured decorated peices, which are made using the opposite technique. On the obverse side there is a scene of Persephone going back to be with her mother, who happens to be the goddess Demeter and the reverse side is Libation scene. This is just one example of the scenes that would be depicted on these anceint works of art. Often times the scenes involved representations of the gods doing something of significance. Many other painted pots were decorated with the red figure technique. It allowed the artists to paint with greater detail and precision.

Greek pottery was created for a couple of purposes, but has been such a great documentation of history, that people study and reference it today in order to gain knowledge and understande about ancient Greek culture, Greek mythology and caftsmanship of the ancient Greek times. With the different shapes of the vessels and the different stories and ways of representing those stories, Greek pottery are not only functional and culturally significant they are beautiful works of art.