red-figure

American  

[red-fig-yer] / ˈrɛdˌfɪg yər /

Or red-figured

adjective

1. pertaining to or designating a style of vase painting developed in Greece in the latter part of the 6th and the 5th centuries b.c., characterized chiefly by figurative representations in red against a black-slip background, details painted in the design, and the introduction of three-dimensional illusion in the rendering of form and space.

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Etymology

Origin of red-figure

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

It was a so-called red-figure kylix, a style in which the reddish figures are set against darkened backgrounds and have finer facial details — innovations that introduced greater realism to Greek art.

From New York Times • Apr. 19, 2023

The museum was also one of several to comply with an Italian campaign in recent decades to reclaim artifacts, returning an Attic red-figure vase it had acquired in 1983.

From New York Times • May 20, 2022

A birdie at the sixth was erased by a bogey at the 10th, and with Leishman on a red-figure tear, Woods was mostly a bystander the rest of the afternoon.

From Golf Digest • Jan. 26, 2020

Berlin’s Antikensammlung has lent a marvellous fifth-century BC red-figure skyphos, or cup, that shows Odysseus shooting his bow at the suitors who are hounding his wife, Penelope.

From The Guardian • Nov. 13, 2019

The red-figure period is usually subdivided into four, marking the chief stages of development, and known respectively as the “severe,” “strong,” “fine,” and “late fine” periods.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 6 "Celtes, Konrad" to "Ceramics" by Various