Gnathia ware is named after the Apulian town of Gnathia (Egnazia) where vases showing this technique were first identified. Though it may have originated there, it was soon made in several centres of southern Italy and Sicily. The technique relied on the application of added colour, principally white, yellow and red, to enliven the surface of a black-glaze vase. The Painter of the Louvre Bottle was one of the leading painters working in the Gnathia technique.
