Shall I compare thee to something nice? – Problems and perspectives in the study of late archaic black-figure vases

At the end of the 6th century BCE, with the emergence of the red-figure technique, black-figure vase painters were facing a dilemma: they either switched to the new decoration technique or found other ways to retain their place on the pottery market. After about 510 BCE, with the cessation of the production of the of the Leagros Group, the majority of black-figure vases were small shapes decorated with repetitive scenes of rather low artistic quality. Despite their lack of artistic merits, however, these vases were present in large quantities in both local and foreign markets from the Western Mediterranean to the Black Sea region. Due to their quality, scholarship has somewhat neglected this group of Athenian pottery labelling them as second-rate products for the poor masses. In my paper, I will discuss the arising problems, as well as the potential interpretations of black-figure mass-produced pottery.