Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Made in the late sixth century B.C., when the cult of Eros was enjoying a resurgence in Athens, the drinking cup is exceptional for showing the god of love in the interior flying between the sky and earth as an intermediary between the divine and the mortal realms. The exterior decoration also emphasizes themes of unity and order, presenting a very early depiction of the principal deeds of Theseus as a group. The hero was credited in antiquity with consolidating the numerous localities around Athens into one political entity. Kachrylion, the potter, specialized in the use of a distinctive, often impermanent, coral-red slip, applied here adjacent to the scenes on both the interior and the exterior. The work was discovered in 1882 in the most important necropolis, or cemetery, of Orvieto, Italy, the Crocefisso del Tufo. Following conservation practices in Florence, the modern restorations are plainly visible than tinted to match surrounding areas.
Artwork Details
- Title: Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)
- Artist: Signed by Kachrylion as potter
- Period: Archaic
- Date: ca. 510 BC
- Culture: Greek, Attic
- Medium: Terracotta; red- figure, coral red
- Dimensions: 4 7/16 × 15 3/4 × 11 5/8 in. (11.2 × 40 × 29.6 cm)
- Classification: Vases
- Credit Line: Lent by the Republic of Italy, Polo Museale Regionale della Toscana
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art