East Greek vase painting was a regional style of ancient Greek vase painting, produced by the eastern Greeks (

Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian ...

and the islands of the eastern

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

). In spite of the region's wealth, the pottery was rather unremarkable in comparison to other areas. The clay is red-brown to pink and often contains

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

inclusions. Many regional sub-styles of East Greek pottery existed. East Greek Geometric vase painting, starting in the Middle Geometric period, shows a strong influence by Attic vase painting. Especially on

Kos Kos or Cos (; el, Κως ) is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 36,986 (2021 census), ...

, this is notable at an early stage. The shape of ''

lekythoi A lekythos (plural lekythoi) is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil (Greek λήκυθος), especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no po ...

'' also indicates a

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: **Armenian Cypriots **Greek Cypriots **Maronite Cypriots **Turkish C ...

influence.

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

also produced large vases, including tall-footed

krater A krater or crater ( grc-gre, , ''kratēr'', literally "mixing vessel") was a large two-handled shape of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, krat ...

s. The distinguishing feature of East Greek vase painting were diagonally hatched

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...

s, triangles and rhomboids. Later, waterfowl were added as a motif. The Attic system of

metope In classical architecture, a metope (μετόπη) is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a bu ...

-like panes was also adopted, but abandoned soon after. By the end of the Geometric period, vases were often covered in a white

slip Slip or SLIP may refer to: Science and technology Biology * Slip (fish), also known as Black Sole * Slip (horticulture), a small cutting of a plant as a specimen or for grafting * Muscle slip, a branching of a muscle, in anatomy Computing and ...

, onto which the paint was applied. Until the 7th century BC, Geometric shapes were continued within the Subgeometric style. This style lasted much longer here than in other Greek regions. Only by about 650 BC was it replaced with an orientalising animal style. This began initially at or near

Miletus Miletus (; gr, Μῑ́λητος, Mī́lētos; Hittite transcription ''Millawanda'' or ''Milawata'' (exonyms); la, Mīlētus; tr, Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in a ...

; a second centre developed after about 625 BC on

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...

. The decorational system of this animal style is named after the most commonly depicted creature, the Wild Goat style. Until 600 BC, vase painting relied entirely on painted silhouettes and reservations, than, beginning in northern

, incision (

black-figure style Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common bet ...

) started to spread. The animal frieze style was quite decorative, but allowed little scope for further development. Especially in Ionian vase painting, regional styles now began to develop.

Bibliography

Thomas Mannack Thomas Mannack (born in 1958) is a German classical archaeologist. Mannack obtained his Doctorate in 1992 with at the University of Kiel. The thema of his dissertation was ''Beazleys spätere und späteste Manieristen''. He is a specialist in ...

: ''Griechische Vasenmalerei. Eine Einführung''. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, p. 81f., 90-94, 134f.. . * Gerald P. Schaus: ''Geometrische Vasenmalerei'', In: ''

Der Neue Pauly Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Ocean ...

'', Vol. 4 (1998), Col. 935-938 * Johannes Schwind: ''Orientalisierende Vasenmalerei'', In: ''Der Neue Pauly'', Vol. 9 (2000), Col. 23-26 * Matthias Steinhart: ''Schwarzfigurige Vasenmalerei II. Ausserattisch'', In: ''Der Neue Pauly'', Vol. 11 (2001), Col. 276-281 {{Greek vase painting Ancient Greek vase-painting styles