In the black-figured vases the figures are painted in black silhouette on the red ground of the vase, the outlines being first roughly indicated by a pointed instrument making a faint line.[795] The surface within these outlines was then filled in with the black pigment by means of a brush, the details of anatomy, drapery, armour, etc., being subsequently brought out in part by further incising of lines with a pointed tool. In some of the finest vases, such as those of Amasis and Exekias (p. 381), the delicacy and minuteness of these lines is brought to an extraordinary pitch of perfection. After a second baking had taken place, the designs were further enriched by the application of opaque purple and white pigments, usually following certain conventional principles, the flesh of women and devices on shields, for instance, being always white, folds of drapery always purple. A third baking at a much lower heat was necessary to fix these colours, and the vase was then complete. It should here be noted that there are really two subdivisions of these black-figured vases, which may be termed for convenience “red-bodied” and “black-bodied.”[796] In the former the whole vase stands out in the natural red colour of the clay; whereas in the latter the treatment approaches more nearly to the red-figure method which we shall presently discuss. The whole body of the vase is in these examples covered with the black varnish, with the exception of a framed panel of red, on which the figures are painted. This distinction may be well observed in the Second Vase Room of the British Museum, where most of the vases on the east side of the room belong to the former or “red-bodied” class, while all those on the west side are “black-bodied,” with designs in panels.