Is my comparison on the significance of black and red pottery plausible?

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Accepted answer

It is a long time since I studied this and just now I do not have time to research it so must leave it to you to verify but I believe you are right that:

'the shift from black to red figure pottery placed more emphasis on the importance of mortal men, and began focusing less so on the Greek mythological events and gods and turned more toward the everyday life of mortals.'

My recollection (I cannot at this distance in time refer you to specific sources) is that this was thought to be linked to the fact that red figure painting on pottery allowed finer detail, making it easier to capture things like people's expressions to give life to everyday scenes.

The pottery clay when glazed and fired turned out red and about the only paint they had that could stand up to the heat of firing was black, containing carbon.

Hence initially the Greeks did the obvious thing and painted black figures on the red background. Around 530 - 520 BC someone in Athens decided to do the opposite and painted he background black while leaving the figures unpainted, so when the pot was glazed and fired they came out red. This turned out to allow finer detail.

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