Importance of ornaments in attribution of attic black- and red-figured pottery (on the basis of items from the collection of the State Hermitage museum)

The article is dedicated to the importance of ornaments for the attribution of whole vases and fragments of Attic black- and red-figured pottery of Archaic and Classical periods. Floral and geometric ornament, being one of important parts of the decoration of Greek painted vases, plays as important role in defining the painter and the time of production of painted pottery as the depiction of human figures and attributes. Though in black- and red-figured Attic vases ornament is only a secondary element, supporting the main figure painting, the style of the vase-painter is quite recognizable in the drawing of ornament, that helps the scholar in making attribution of the whole vase and in a case when only a small fragment of a vase with ornament is preserved.