The François Vase is a large Attic volute krater decorated in the black-figure style. It stands at 66 cm in height and was inspired by earlier bronze vases. It was used for wine. A milestone in the development of ancient Greek pottery due to the drawing style used as well as the combination of related stories depicted in the numerous friezes, it is dated to circa 570/560 BCE. The François Vase was discovered in 1844 in Chiusi where an Etruscan tomb in the necropolis of Fonte Rotella was found located in central Italy. It was named after its discoverer Alessandro François, and is now in the Museo Archeologico in Florence. It remains uncertain whether the krater was used in Greece or in Etruria, and whether the handles were broken and repaired in Greece or in Etruria. The François Vase may have been made for a symposium given by a member of an aristocratic family in Solonian Athens, then broken and, after being carefully repaired, sent to Etruria, perhaps as an instance of elite-gift exchange. It bears the inscriptions Ergotimos mepoiesen and Kleitias megraphsen, meaning 'Ergotimos made me' and 'Kleitias painted me'. It depicts 270 figures, 121 of which have accompanying inscriptions. It is highly unusual for so many to be identifiable: the scenes depicted represent a number of mythological themes. In 1900 the vase was smashed into 638 pieces by a museum guard by hurling a wooden stool against the protective glass. It was later restored by Pietro Zei in 1902, followed by a second reconstruction in 1973 incorporating previously missing pieces.
Attic black-figure volute krater, known as the François vase, ca. 570-565 BCE
Detail: outer side with the Mistress of Animals above a vignette showing Ajax carrying the dead Achilles
Detail: the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
The vase is signed by Ergotimos (potter) and Kleitias (painter)
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic, is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are specimens dating in the 2nd century BCE. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.
Heracles and Geryon on an Attic black-figured amphora with a thick layer of transparent gloss, c. 540 BCE, now in the Munich State Collection of Antiquities.
Athena wearing the aegis, Attic black-figured hydria by the potter Pamphaios (signed) and the Euphiletos Painter, c. 540 BCE. Found in Tuscania, now in the Cabinet des Médailles, BNF, Paris
Scene from a black-figure amphora from Athens, 6th century BCE, now in the Louvre, Paris
Hercules drives Cerberus ahead of him. The beast turns one of its heads back in a threatening manner and raises its snake tail. Faultily fired Attic neck amphora by the Bucci Painter, c. 540 BC, found in Vulci, now in the Munich State Collection of Antiquities