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Where black-figure artists engraved details through the black to reveal the underlying base reddish color ( see the lines delineating muscles in the pancratists photo), this technique would serve no purpose on red figures on pottery, since the underlying material was identically reddish-colored clay. Instead of painting the figures black ( see accompanying photo of pancratists) on orange-red clay, the new vase painters left the figures red and painted the background around the red figures black. Near the end of the sixth century B.C., a revolution took place in vase painting techniques in Athens.

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