White-ground technique was already well known in the late Archaic period. Most likely it derived either from black-figure technique or from imitation of major painting. On another view, it was connected with painting on non-standard materials such as ostrich eggs or ivory. Its connection with lekythoi dates from early on; but it could also be used on an oinochoe, a kylix, a pyxis, or an alabastron. Output of kylikes with white-ground decoration on the outside was mainly confined to the years 480-460 B.C. The most important artists working in this medium were the Pistoxenus Painter and the Sotades Painter. there have also survived a few calyx kraters that have a large outside surface decorated with narrative scenes by the Phiale Painter, who also decorated lekythoi.

A white-ground lekythos was the standard grave-offering in Classical times. Why were they there? Because they contained the oil that was always used in the burial rite. There was often a smaller space inside for oil, so that the user didn't have to fill the whole vessel, thus economizing on the expenditure of costly oil on the grave. In the first specimens we have, the drawing was blocked in outline, just as was done for its model, the black-figure pot. In the third quarter of the 5th century, it was fashionable to use several colours (red, blue, green, ochre), and the brushwork became as plastic as the liquidity of the pigment would allow. This is an advance certainly borrowed from major painting. Depending on the period, the outlines are sometimes made thin and shiny (as in the red-figure technique), and at other times honey-coloured or opaque.