Six's technique is the modern name for a technique used by Attic black-figure vase painters that involves laying on figures in white or red on a black surface and incising the details so that the black shows through. It was first described by the Dutch scholar

Jan Six Jan Six (14 January 1618, Amsterdam – 28 May 1700, Amsterdam) was an important cultural figure in the Dutch Golden Age. Biography From a well-to-do cloth merchant family Six, Jan Six was the son of Jean Six (1575–1617) and his wife Anna Wij ...

in 1888, and was given its English name by J. D. Beazley.Beazley, in ''Greek Vases in Poland'', 1928 Around 530 BCE, the technique began to be used regularly for decorating the whole vase, rather than for details as in previous practice. The effect is similar to red-figure painting.

Nikosthenes Nikosthenes was a potter of Greek black- and red-figure pottery in the time window 550–510 BC. He signed as the potter on over 120 black-figure vases, but only nine red-figure. Most of his vases were painted by someone else, called Painter ...

Psiax Psiax was an Attic vase painter of the transitional period between the black-figure and red-figure styles. His works date to ''circa'' 525 to 505 BC and comprise about 60 surviving vases, two of which bear his signature. Initially he was allocat ...

, and the

Diosphos Painter The Diosphos Painter was an Athenian Attic black-figure vase painter thought to have been active from 500–475 BCE, many of whose surviving works are on lekythoi. The Diosphos Painter was a pupil of the Edinburgh Painter, who also trained the ...

were among the early users of the technique. It remained in use until the mid-5th century, when it can be observed on a small number of oenochoe from the Haimon painter workshop.

Notes

References

*Beth Cohen. ''The Colors of Clay'', 2006. * C. H. Emilie Haspels, ''Attic Black Figure Lekythoi'', 1936. *G. van Hoorn, ''Choes and Athesteria'' 1951. *Jan Six. ''A rare vase-technique'', Journal of Hellenic Studies 30, pp. 323–6. {{Greek vase painting Ancient Greek vase-painting styles Archaic Greek art

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