Apulian Miniature Kantharos (Cup)

Classical-Hellenistic
4th century BCE

1 7/8 x 1 15/16 x 1/8 in. (4.8 x 4.9 x 0.3 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• Apulian - Refers to a pottery style that developed in Apulia in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE and was manifest in plain and ornate versions. The plain version is usually characterized by smaller vases with simpler decorative compositions, fewer figures depicted, and themes that are Dionysiac, genre scenes, or simple female heads. In the ornate version, the vases are larger, more colors are used, and designs are more ornate, including floral and geometric patterns, and mythological and funerary subjects.
• cups - Open bowl-shaped vessels, used chiefly for drinking, often having one handle, but sometimes two handles or none, generally on a low foot-ring; also includes similar bowl-shaped vessels, generally without handles, resting on a stem and supported by a spreading foot. Occasionally made with a lid.
• kantharoi - Ancient Greek drinking vessels featuring a deep, footed bowl set on a tall footed stem and two vertical side handles extending from the bottom of the vessel to the rim. The kantharos is intimately associated with the wine god Dionysos, who is often depicted on vases holding a kantharos of type A or a rhyton.
• miniature - Use to describe objects and beings of a reduced size or scale compared to the average or normal range for its kind.

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