CIRCA 520-500 B.C.

This phiale is an example of the rare 'Six's technique', identified by the Dutch scholar Jan Six in 1888. The principal innovator of the technique is considered to be the Athenian potter Nikosthenes and his workshop. The technique employed the black glaze as an underlying ground and then used superposed colors in place of reserved surface. In addition, details were incised so that the black showed through, as was practiced by the old black-figure technique. Hence Six's technique combines the use of incision characteristic of black-figure vase painting, with the red-figure technique's focus on brightly coloured individual figures against a dark lustrous background. It was a short-lived technique, lasting one generation, being less wear-proof and less easy to manage for the painter.

A close parallel example of this phiale, which appears to have been painted by the same hand, is in the collection of the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin, inv. no. F2311, Beazley Archive no. 41707.

For a discussion of phialai in Six's technique, including those with nonsense inscriptions, cf. B. Cohen, The Colours of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006, p. 77, A. Tsingarida, 'Nikosthenes looking east, Phialai in Six’s and polychrome Six’s technique', and D. Kurtz, Essays in Classical Archaeology for Eleni Hatzivassiliou 1977-2007, Studies in Classical Archaeology, vol. IV, Oxford, 2008, pp. 105-110.