In the red-figured vases the black varnish is used as the background, and covers the whole vase, as in the “black-bodied” B.F. fabrics, the figures not being actually painted, but _left red_ in the colour of the clay. The process was as follows:—Before the varnish was applied the outlines of the figures were indicated, not by incised lines but by drawing a thick line of black with a brush round their contours. It is probable that a fine brush was used at first, especially for more delicate work, and then a broader brush producing a line about an eighth of an inch in thickness. The process, be it noted, is more akin to _drawing_ than painting; and it was as draughtsmen _par excellence_ that the red-figure artists excelled. The next stage was to mark the inner details by means of very fine black lines (corresponding to the incised lines of B.F. vases), or by masses of black for surfaces such as the hair; white and purple were also employed, but far more sparingly than on the earlier vases. In the late Athenian and South Italian vases a tendency to polychromy sprang up, but the main process always remained the same to the final decadence of the art. The figures being completed and protected from accidents by their broad black borders, the varnishing of the whole exterior surface was then proceeded with. This was of course a purely mechanical business. A fragment of a red-figured vase in the Sèvres Museum forms an excellent illustration of the method employed, as, although the figures are finished, the ground has never been filled in, and the original black border is plainly visible (Fig. 71). [Illustration: FIG. 71. FRAGMENT OF UNFINISHED RED-FIGURED VASE.] The result of the second baking was to fix the varnish and cause it to permeate the surface of the clay in such a way as to become practically inseparable from it. The subsidiary colours, on the other hand, which were laid on over the black, are always liable to disappear or fade. A very interesting representation of painters at work on their vases is to be seen on a hydria from Ruvo (Fig. 72).[797] Three painters are seated at work with their brushes, of whom two are being crowned by Victories, while the third is about to receive a wreath from Athena, the protecting goddess of the industry. Their paint-pots are to be seen by their side. At one end of the scene a woman is similarly occupied. From _Blümner_. [Illustration: FIG. 72. STUDIO OF VASE-PAINTER.]