Attic Black-Figure Kylix (Drinking Cup) Eye Cup with Dophins

Late Archaic
About 520 BCE - 510 BCE

3 15/16 x 10 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (10 x 27 x 26.7 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• Archaic - Refers to the pottery style found in Persia around 6000 BCE. The style is characterized by fine, plain buff pottery tempered with straw that is sometimes decorated with simple red or orange painted designs.
• armor - Refers generally to that category of costume designed to be worn or carried to protect the body in combat. Armor pieces which are always physical parts of or are affixed to other pieces and cannot function alone are collocated under the guide term "." For specifically groups of armor pieces designed as a whole to possess particular physical characteristics in order to suit a particular purpose or occasion, see "armors."
• Attic - Style and culture of the region of Attica. For culture particular to the capital of Attica, Athens, use "Athenian."
• Black-figure - Refers to a style of Greek vase painting that developed from the Geometric and Orientalizing styles. It appeared in Corinth around 720 BCE, flourished in Attica by 600 BCE, and was found in Sparta, eastern Greece, and elsewhere, until the Red-figure style gradually replaced it in the late sixth century BCE. The style is characterized by a particular technique, which is characterized by the use of a refined slip, a two-stage firing process, and sintering to create black figures in silhouette on a red ground. Details were incised into the black figures or applied in purple or white pigment.
• 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.
• eye cups - Black-figure kylikes of type A, generally of the 6th century BCE, decorated on the outside with a pair of large eyes on each side, often with figures painted between the eyes and sometimes under the handles as well. On some rare eye cups, moldmade male genitals substitue for the wheelmade foot.
• eyes - Motifs having the appearance of an eye, generally a human eye, as found, for example, painted or bossed on the bows of watercraft as protective devices, or, in Christian iconography, as the eye of God in the center of an equilateral triangle representing the Trinity. Distinct from "oculi (openings)" which are small round or oval openings such as windows in a wall or openings in the crown of a dome.
• kylikes - Ancient Greek drinking vessels in the form of a broad, shallow bowl set on a high foot or pedestal with two upcurving handles.
• kylikes type A - A type of kylix characterized by a deep bowl, a lip that is not offset, and a short stem and foot. This form dominated black-figure vase painting after about 540 BCE but also continued in red-figure. The ordinary type A kylix is an eye cup.
• tondi - Circular paintings. For circular two-dimensional motifs, use "medallions (ornament areas)"; use "roundels" for circular panels in architectural contexts.
• vase paintings - Refers to two-dimensional decoration applied to pottery by using paint made of metallic oxides or other pigments held in suspension in slip or another medium. The term is particularly used to refer to Ancient Greek red- and black-figure works. See also "porcelain paintings (visual works)."

This object is a member of the following portfolios: