Interior, flute-playing satyr and maenad Exterior, obverse and reverse, symposium
The exterior provides a particularly full illustration of the symposium (drinking party) and, especially, of its paraphernalia: a wreathed column-krater for mixing wine and water, a large skyphos for the relief of a sick symposiast, a lamp stand that also accommodates a ladle and strainer, and krotala (castanets) and a picnic basket suspended from the back wall. Compared with the figures on the outside, the satyr and maenad (followers of the wine god, Dionysos) appear formal indeed.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)
Artist:Signed by Hieron as potter
Artist: Attributed to Makron
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 480 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 5 7/16 in. (13.8 cm) diameter 13 1/16 in. (33.2 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1920
Object Number:20.246
Signature: Signed by Hieron as potter
“Probably, but not certainly, from Vulci” (Beazley 1971, p. 378)
Excavated by Vincenzo Campanari; 1837, purchased in Naples by Victor Louis Mottez from Vincenzo Campanari; 1837-1897, collection of V.L. Mottez, Paris, then UK (after 1848); 1897, inherited by his son, Henry Mottez; 1897-1920, collection of H. Mottez, UK; acquired in April 1920, purchased from H. Mottez.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1923. "Athenian Pottery: Recent Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 18(11): pp. 253–54, 256, fig. 1.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 53, pp. 75–76, pls.50, 53, 54, 180, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hill, Dorothy Kent. 1942. "Wine Ladels and Strainers from Ancient Times." The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 5: pp. 44, 52, fig. 4.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 63, figs. 24e–f, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. no. 23, pp. 13, 24, 26, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 73, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. p. 63, figs. 24e–f, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. pp. 467, 481, 1654, no. 118, Add. 1, pp. 458–80, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 378, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1972. Greek Vase Painting: An Introduction. p. 7, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mertens, Joan R. 1976. "A Hellenistic Find in New York." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 11: pp. 74–75, fig. 7.
Mertens, Joan R. 1976. "A Hellenistic Find in New York." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 11: pp. 74–75, fig. 7.
Cohen, Beth and University of Chicago Press. 1991. "The Literate Potter: A Tradition of Incised Signatures on Attic Vases." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 26: pp. 70–73, figs. 38–39.
Kunisch, Norbert. 1997. Makron. pl. 377, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
Sini, Thalia. 1997. "A Symposion Scene on an Attic Fourth-Century Calyx-krater in St. Petersburg." Greek Offerings: Essays on Greek Art in Honour of John Boardman, Dr. Olga Palagia, ed. p. 164 n. 22, Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Miller, Margaret C. 1999. "Reexamining Transvestism in Archaic and Classical Athens: The Zewadski Stamnos." American Journal of Archaeology, 103(2): p. 244–45, fig. 22.
Blundell, Sue. 2002. "Clutching at Clothes." Women's Dress in the Ancient Greek World, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, ed. p. 167 n. 56, London: Gerald Duckworth.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 23, pp. 13, 24, 26, 81, 98, 116–20, 139, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lezzi-Hafter, Adrienne, Cécile Jubier-Galinier, Leslie Threatte, Jan-Matthias Müller, and Kristine Gex. 2016. Potters - Painters - Scribes : Inscriptions on Attic Vases, Rudolf Wachter, ed. p. 143, Zürich: Akanthus Verlag für Archäologie.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2017. The Artist Project : What Artists See When They Look at Art. pp. 116–17, New York.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.