Just as we followed the process in late Corinthian and Chalkidian workmanship, so in Athens the broad, massive archaic black-figured style in the shape of the vase and the rendering of the figures passes into more and more elegant compression and precision; Sophilos is followed by Klitias. The Florence vase ‘made’ by the potter Ergotimos, ‘painted’ by Klitias and named after its finder François (Figs. 89 and 90), even in the boldly rising outline of the body shows the spirit of a new age, and goes beyond the round-bellied shape of the Gorgon ‘lebes’ as much as the late Corinthian kraters surpass the Eurytios vase (Fig. 64). Ergotimos holds the mean between the old round-bellied vase shapes and the more elegant ones of the Chalkidian best period (p. 77), just as Klitias does between the figured style of Sophilos and that of Amasis (p. 105); and as Ergotimos does his best in delicately moulding the shape and gives the vase a showy appearance with his elongated handle volutes, so in the figured decoration covering the whole surface and in the incredibly delicate execution of all details Klitias presents a refinement of the black-figured style which in its way cannot be surpassed. Potter and painter here take a step, which secures for Attic pottery the paramount position for all time. The treatment of the procession of the Olympians in honour of the newly-wedded sea-goddess on the principal frieze is particularly rich. We have seen that Klitias here utilized an old type. The representative solemnity required by the subject gives an archaic stamp to this frieze; in particular the richly adorned festal clothes with patterns that it almost requires a microscope to see, which bear witness to uncanny patience and accuracy on the part of the painter, heighten the stiffly venerable impression. But when compared with Sophilos, Klitias shows a considerable advance in the rendering of nature.