Decorated Pottery from Greece and Southern Italy

Decorated pottery has been produced in Greece since prehistoric times. It was already being exported in the second millennium BCE, when the Mycenaean culture predominated in Greece. In the first half of the first millennium, decorations were mainly geometric or motifs derived from the early oriental cultures. The current exhibition presents vessels decorated in the Black-Figure style (7th-6th centuries BCE) and Red-Figure style (6th-4th centuries BCE). The latter was also prevalent in southern Italy and in Sicily, having reached there with migrants from Greece. Characteristic of these vessels are the wonderful decorations derived both from mythology and from daily life from which we can learn about Greek culture. Some of them were funerary offerings, while others were used at banqu.