Attic Pottery - Black-Figure Ware: Attic Cup
Inv. No.: 65.002
Provenance: Attica
Date: late 6th century BC
Height: 74mm
Diameter: 174mm
A black gloss cup or kylix with a gorgoneion, used to ward off evil, inside a red reserved ring in the centre of the interior. The bowl is gently rounded in shape with handles, round in cross section, placed symmetrically on each side of the bowl. They extend the curve of the lower part of the bowl. There is a short stem above a disc foot which flares slightly in profile. The cup has been reassembled from several fragments, but the gorgoneion is intact. Added red and white plus incision are used for the face of the Gorgon. The shiny black is worn or lacking in places on the exterior.
Function:
A drinking cup
Manufacture:
the bowl and foot were individually thrown and turned before being grooved and joined with slip as they were beginning to harden. The handles were shaped by hand.
Decoration:
- The exterior is painted shiny black except for the reserved edge of the foot and where it has worn or never fully covered areas on the handles and part of the bowl, particularly beneath the handles. At the top of the foot is a reddish ring.
- The interior is also black except for the tondo which is decorated with a gorgoneion placed in a reserved ring. The Gorgon's face has scalloped locks of hair, alternately black and red, scroll ears, large eyes with central red pupil, a wide mouth with protruding red tongue and a black beard. There is a short vertical black line in the middle of the forehead around which four black dots are symmetrically arranged. Incision is used for the locks of hair, the nose, mouth and beard.
Bibliography:
Connor, P. and H. Jackson, A Catalogue of Greek Vases in the collection of the University of Melbourne at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, South Yarra, Victoria, Macmillan, 2000, 114 (Gorgoneion references).
Frontisi-Ducroux, F., "In the Mirror of the Mask", A City of Images: Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece, trans. D. Lyons, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1989, 151-164, especially 156-160.
Kanowski, M.G., The Antiquities Collection, Catalogue, Department of Classics and Ancient History, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 1978, 11.
Comparanda:
Boardman, J., Athenian Black Figure Vases, London, Thames and Hudson, 1991, Fig. 290.2 (gorgoneion in a cup tondo).
Brommer, F., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 11, Schloss Fasanerie 1 (1956), Tafel 16, 1 and 2 (very similar cup).
Burow, J., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Deutschland 47, Tübingen 3 (1980), Tafel 32, 6-7 (very similar cup).
Clark, A. J., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, USA. 25, The J. Paul Getty Museum 2 (1990), Plate 120, 1 and 2 (two fragments each with a gorgoneion).
Moore, M. B. and M. Z. P. Philippides, Attic Black-Figured Pottery (Volume 23 of The Athenian Agora: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens), Princeton, New Jersey, The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1986, Plate 114, 1785-1790, 1792 (similar gorgoneia), Plate 115, 1791 (gorgoneion from a cup tondo).
Shapiro, H. A., Art, Myth, and Culture: Greek Vases from Southern Collections, exhibition catalogue, New Orleans Museum of Art, Tulane University, 1981, No. 13, pp. 42-43 (gorgoneion in the tondo of a black-figure eye cup).