Kylix with Woman Pouring Libation and Courtship Scenes

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Kylix with Woman Pouring Libation and Courtship Scenes

ArtistAttributed to Makron (painter) (Greek)

ArtistAttributed to Hieron (potter)

Place of OriginGreece, Athens

Dateabout 490-480 BCE

DimensionsH 4 7/16 × W (across handles) 14 1/4 × Rim Diam. 11 1/2 × Base Diam. 4 1/4 in. (11.3 × 36.2 × 29.2 × 10.8 cm)

MediumWheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware , red-figure technique.

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1972.55

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionA wide, shallow drinking cup (kylix) with a round foot and two horizontal handles, decorated in the red-figure technique with added red glaze highlights. The interior (tondo) shows a richly dressed woman—wearing a chiton, himation, fillet, and earrings—pouring a libation from an oinochoe onto a flaming, blood-streaked altar set on a two-stepped base. In the crook of her left arm she balances a ritual basket (kanoun), while behind her stands a tall incense burner (thymiaterion) on a squared pedestal, with faint lines of smoke rising from its bowl. The exterior depicts two groups of men and women engaging in scenes of courtship or gift-giving. On one side, men hold flowers and bags (moneybags?) as they approach women seated on cushioned chairs (klismoi), who respond with gestures of their own. The setting includes objects such as a flute-case, sponge, strigil, mirror, and net bag with marbles—signifiers of grooming, music, and leisure. On the other side, a woman holding a pair of pipes faces a standing man, while a second woman seated with her back turned engages a second male figure.

Label TextThis drinking cup from early 5th-century BCE Athens is attributed to the painter Makron and potter Hieron, renowned collaborators in red-figure pottery.Inside the bowl, a finely dressed woman pours wine over a flaming, blood-streaked altar, surrounded by ritual tools. In one hand, she steadies a large basket of offerings; behind her, a tall incense burner stands on a pedestal, gently releasing smoke—a rare detail in vase painting. She may be a kanephoros—a maiden honored with leading festival rites—or a courtesan performing a private act of devotion. The fragrance of incense adds an invisible layer of meaning, marking the space as sacred and suggesting a divine presence. On the outside, scenes of flirtation unfold as men offer flowers and pouches to reclining women, likely hetairai: cultured companions who entertained elite men at drinking parties. The juxtaposition is striking—sacred ritual on the inside, seductive exchange on the outside. This contrast has intrigued scholars, who debate whether the pouch offered is a payment or a playful gift of knucklebones. The contrast between solemn ritual and lively courtship shows the wide range of women’s roles in Athenian life—and perhaps also the humor or curiosity of those who used this cup long ago.Published ReferencesBoulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 34, repr. pl. 53 and 54, graffito drawing fig. 9; profile drawing fig. 13.

"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2, 3, 1976, p. 47, repr.

"La Chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts,, vol. 89, no. 1298, March 1977, p. 91.

Keuls, Eva C., "Attic vase-painting and the home textile industry," Ancient Greek art and iconography, Madison, 1983, pp. 225-226, repr. fig. 14.35 a-b.

Keuls, Eva C., The reign of the phallus: sexual politics in ancient Athens, New York, 1985, pp. 167-168, 223, figs. 141, 142, 204.

Bead, Mary, "Adopting an approach," in Rasmussen, Tom, ed., Looking at Greek vases, Cambridge, England, 1991, pp. 28-30, figs. 7, 8.

Hunt, Lynne, et. al., The challenge of the West, Lexington, MA, 1995, repr. p. 50, (col., det.).

Reden, Sitta von, Exchange in ancient Greece, London, 1995, p. 208 repr. pl. 5 a-c.

Roccos, Linda Jones, "The Kanephoros and her festival mantle in Greek Art," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 99, no. 4, Oct. 1995, p. 647, fig. 2.

Kunisch, Norbert, Makron, Mainz, 1997, p. 179, pl. 64 (3 views).

Personalities from the past, Melbourne, 1997, repr. p. 90.

Vivante, Bella, ed., Women's roles in ancient civilizations: a reference guide, Westport, 1999, p. 231, fig. 8.1 and cover (det.).

Neils, Jenifer, "Others within the other; an intimate look at Hetairai and Maenads," in Cohen, Beth, ed., Not the classical ideal: Athens and the construction of the other in Greek art, Leiden, 2000-, p. 216, no. 47, 218, fig. 8.7.

Dillon, Matthew, Girls and women in classical Greek religion, London, Routledge, 2002, p. 39, 40, 307, n. 18, fig. 2.1.

Antigone & the Greek world, Cleveland, Ohio, Nexus, 1997, repr. (det. col.) on cover.

Rosenweig, Rachel, Worshipping Aphrodite: art and cult in classical Athens, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2003, pp. 75, 76, 77, p. 131, n. 100, 102, 104, 105, figs. 63a-c.

Hunt, Lynn et al, The making of The West: people and cultures, Boston, Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005, p. 63, repr. (col.).

Connelly, Joan Benton, Portrait of a priestess: Women and ritual in ancient Greece, Princeton, 2007, p. 15-16, 112, 228n 78, fig. 1.2. p. 16 and det. opp. p. 1.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 73, repr. (col.).

Nørskov, Vinnie, Lise Hannestad, Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, and Sian Lewis, Eds., The World of Greek Vases, Rome, Edizioni Quasar, 2009, p. 101-103, repr. (B&W) p. 102, figs. 11a and 11B.

Athanassaki, Lucia, ed., Apolline Politics and Poetics, Athens, The European Culture Centre of Delphi, 2009, p. 619, fig. 5, p. 630.

Albersmeier, Sabine, ed., Heroes! Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, Baltimore, MD, Walters Art Gallery, 2009, no. 78, p. 268, repr. (col.) pp. 268, 269.

Clare, Claudia, Subversive Ceramics, London, Bloomsbury, 2016, p., 37, fig. 2.1, repr. (col.) p. 36. Gaifman, Milette. “The Incense Burner in Greek Art of the Fifth Century BCE.” In Holy Smoke: Censers Across Cultures, edited by Beate Fricke, Munich, Hirmer, 2023, 119–123, figs. 7-8.

Exhibition HistoryBaltimore, The Walters Art Gallery; Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, Pandora: Women in Classical Greece, 1995, no. 38, pp. 183-187, repr. pp. 184 (side A, col.) p. 185 (side B), p. 186 (det. interior).

Switzerland, Antikenmuseum und Sammlung Ludwig, 1995-96.

Baltimore, Walters Art Museum; Nashville, Frist Center for the Visual Arts; San Diego, San Diego Museum of Art; New York, Onassis Center, Heroes! Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, October 11, 2009 – January 3, 2011.

Toledo, 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, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1963, p. 469, no. 149 (a similar but slightly later cup by Makron in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, no. 01.8022).

See also Caskey, L.D., and John D. Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1931-1963, part III, no. 141, pp. 39-40, and pl. 78 and 79,6.

See also Deubner, L. "Hochzeit und Opferkorb," Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, vol. 40, 1925, pp. 210 ff. (on the type of basket carried by the woman in the tondo).

See also Richter, G.M.A., American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 11, 1907, pp. 422-428 (on the type of basket).

See also Richter, G.M.A., "The Basket of the Kanephoroi," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 30, 1926, pp. 422-426 (on the type of basket).

See also RIchter, G.M.A., Red-figure Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven, 1936, p. 215 ff., no. 169 (on the type of basket).

See also Sparkes, Brian and Lucy Talcott, The Athenian Agora, vol. XII, p. 182 f. (on the type of thymiaterion in the tondo).