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Kylix (drinking cup); Inside: Two Revelers; Outside: A Procession of Revelers

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Kylix (drinking cup); Inside: Two Revelers; Outside: A Procession of Revelers

Artist The Foundry Painter (Greek)
Place of OriginGreek, Attic
Dateabout 490-480 BCE
DimensionsH 5 1/8 × Rim Diam 11 1/2 × Max L 14 5/8 x Base Diam 4 7/8 in. (13 × 29.2 × 37.1 x 12.4 cm)
MediumRed Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware
ClassificationCeramics
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1964.126
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
Label TextThe scenes on this cup show revelers (komasts) at the end of a symposium or party. A symposium was an important social activity in ancient Athens and participation was limited to aristocratic males. Wine was mixed with water in a vessel called a krater to a strength determined by the host of the symposium. Besides drinking, poetry was sung, games were played, political alliances were formed, and personal relationships started. After several kraters of wine, the end of the party was marked with a rowdy parade (called a komos) through the streets. The Foundry Painter, the anonymous Athenian artist who painted this cup, was given his modern name from an important kylix painted by him, today in Berlin, which shows workers in a foundry casting bronze statues.Published ReferencesVermule, Emily, "Myths, Shapes and Colors," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, 1967, p. 427, figs. 13, 14.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," Art Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, 1967, p. 153.

Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 41.

Beazley, John D., Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 370, no. 12 bis.

Beazley, John D., "Un Realista Greco," Accademeia nazionale dei Lincei, Rome. Fondazione Antonio Feltrinelli Adunanze straordinarie per il conferimento dei premi della fondazione A. Feltunelle, I;3 (1966), pp. 53-60.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 35, repr. pl. 55 and 56, fig. 10-12.

Gorney, Michaelene, "Musical instruments: strings," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 20, no. 4, 1978, p. 91, repr. fig. 1.

Keuls, Eva C., The reign of the phallus: sexual politics in ancient Athens, New York, 1985, p. 70, fig. 51.

Maas, Martha and Jane McIntosh Snyder, Stringed instruments of ancient Greece, New Haven, 1989, pp. 93, 96, 98, 115, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, repr. p. 110, 130.

Bundrick, Sheramy D., Music and dance in classical Athens, Cambridge, Eng., Cambridge, 2005, p. 22, 84, 205, n. 34, 216, n. 167, fig. 11 (exterior), p. 23, fig. 52 (interior), p. 23, fig. 52, (interior), p. 85.

Yatromanolakis, Dimitrios, Sappho in the making: the early reception, Cambridge, MA, Center for Hellenic Studies, 2007, p. 119-20, fig. 12, p. 121.

Lear, Andrew and Eva Cantarella, Images of ancient Greek pederasty: boys were their gods, London, Routledge, 2008, p. 115, fig. 3.7, p. 117.

Dercy, Benoit, Le Travail des Peaux et du cuir Dans le Monde Grec Antique, Naples, Centre Jean Berard, 2015, p. 131, repr. (col.) fig. 26, p. 133.

Cosgrove, Charles H., Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2023, p. 71, repr. fig. 2.1, p. 72.

Exhibition HistoryChicago, Art Institute, Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections, 1979-1980, no. 101, p. 178-179, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, Out of Sight, June 18-Aug. 29, 2010 (no cat.).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian Vase Painting in the Early Fifth Century BC, July 8-October 1, 2017.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 1960, p. 400, ff.

cf. Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figure Vases in American Museums, Cambridge, Mass., 1968, p. 94.

Kylix (drinking cup)
The Epeleius Painter or the Euergides Painter
about 510-500 BCE
Drinking Cup (Kylix) in "Bilingual" Style
The Painter of the Bowdoin Eye Cup
about 520 BCE
Drinking Cup (Kylix) with Boxers and Trainers
Triptolemos Painter
about 490 BCE
Drinking Cup (Kylix) with Heracles and Telamon
The Euergides Painter
about 515 BCE
Volute Krater with Dionysus and Ariadne
Creusa Painter
about 400-380 BCE
Volute Krater with Funerary Scenes
The Baltimore Painter
about 330-320 BCE

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