Like his other two works on Athenian Figure Vases, John Boardman offers a detailed survey of the important painters and workshops of the time, providing readers with over five hundred illustrations and a complete bibliography. Particular attention is paid to the technique and to the production and marketing of these outstanding vases as well as to the information they provide about everyday life and the way this reflects the changing fortunes of Athens through the period. We see how the increasingly diverse subject matter throws much light on Greek myths and religious practice, and how the appearance of flamboyant vases in the final phases of the Classical period seems to show Athenian painters looking back to earlier achievements in their craft.