The image of angel on this pottery is imaginative and beautiful, accomplished in the red-figure technique that was invented in Athens about the time this pot was made. The figures remained in the orange-red color of the clay, and the surrounding background was filled in with black. With this, the method of detailing the figures was changed dramatically. Instead of using a sharp tool to incise lines, the painters used a fine brush, pen or reed to apply lines of purplish, red and brown color for the inner details of the figures. The technique may have been inspired by low-relief sculptures in which marble figures were highlighted against dark blue painted backgrounds.