red-figure vase painting

red-figure vase painting.
One of the two major divisions of Greek vase painting, the other being black-figure. In the red-figure technique, the background was painted black, leaving the figures in the unpainted red colour of the pottery. Details of the figure could thus be added with a brush rather than incised through the black paint, allowing much greater flexibility and subtlety of treatment. Because of this advantage the red-figure technique, which developed in Athens from about 530 BC, superseded the black-figure technique.