The art of vase-painting in classical Athens / Martin Robertson.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-332) and index.

Introduction -- 1. The beginning of red-figure -- 2. A time of ferment: the red-figure Pioneers and their contemporaries -- 3. After the Pioneers: red-figure mastery; the beginning of white ground -- 4. Archaic into classical -- 5. Early classical -- 6. High classical - 7. Developments from the high classical -- 8. The later fifth century; developments into the fourth -- 9. The fourth century.

"In his new book, Professor Martin Robertson draws together the results of a lifetime's study of Greek vase-painting, tracing the history of figure-drawing on Athenian pottery from the invention of the 'red-figure' technique in the later archaic period to the abandonment of figured vase-decoration two hundred years later. The book covers red-figure and also work produced over the same period in the same workshops in black-figure and other techniques, especially that of drawing oin outline on a white ground.
Professor Robertson sees his book as filling the gap left by the classical art-historian Sir John Beazley who wrote a Development of Attic black-figure but no corresponding summation of his work in red-figure. The book has a secondary purpose: Beazley's work has in recent years been subjected to serious attacks which question both the validity of his method and the value of his approach. This book takes account of the cogency of some criticisms while demonstrating the essential rightness and importance of what Beazley did.
This is a major contribution to the history of Greek vase-painting. Anyone seriously interested in the subject -whether scholar, student, curator, collector or amateur - will find it essential reading." -- Back cover.