Attic Art

Attica gave herself to the practice of the arts at a very early stage, and the “geometric” period foreshadows her future successes. ¹ Geometric decoration, instinctive with all primitive peoples and placed once more in honour or brought in by the invaders, was in Attica erected into a veritable aesthetic system. The large vases of the Dipylon of the 8th century astonish us not only by the material difficulties overcome in their firing but also by their skilled composition in decoration, by no means of an arbitrary character, which was regulated by a definite system. One cannot but recognize this quality despite the naive design which is still barbaric and conventional. Ceramic industry, in close relation with economic prosperity, remains one of the principal branches of production; ² it was to develop the beautiful Attic style of the black-figure vases (6th century) after passing through the proto-Attic stage and the Attic-Corinthian phase imbued with Oriental influence; then the advent of the red-figure style (end of the 6th century) was to foreshadow the ceramic masterpieces of the 5th century. The qualities of design peculiar to the Attics was clearly revealed at the earliest stage. By the technical skill of their manufacture, the qualities of style and the efficient maintenance of a flourishing trade, Attic ceramics gradually imposed its wares on Greek and foreign markets ³ and in the course of the 6th century eliminated its rivals such as the Corinthians, whose best period was over and who ceased to manufacture painted vases somewhere between 480 and 460.