Kylix with a Stag

Artist The Epeleius Painter or the Euergides Painter (Greek)

Place of OriginGreece, Attica; reportedly found in Cerveteri, Italy

Dateabout 510-500 BCE

DimensionsH 5 1/4 × Max L (with handles) 16 3/8 × Rim Diam 13 × Foot Diam 4 3/4 in. (13.3 × 41.6 × 33 × 12 cm)

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

ClassificationCeramics

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

Object number

1956.59

On View

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

DescriptionA shallow, wide-mouthed cup with gently curving walls, high stem, and horizontal handles. The interior tondo shows a single stag in profile. Fabric is fine, reddish Attic clay with black gloss slip. Missing sections of the bowl have been restored in plaster, particularly along the walls and rim, with the lip profile partially reconstructed.

Label TextAthenian ceramic vessels are surprisingly light. The walls are usually quite thin and they follow a very subtle curve. Both the lightness and the curve were achieved by tooling away some of the clay after the vessel was thrown on the potter’s wheel and then by polishing the surface with a smooth stone or strip of damp leather. This kylix was also made in pieces: the bowl, the stem, and the two handles. The pieces would have been attached to the bowl before firing, using liquid clay as a kind of glue. The simple painting of a stag provides a graceful balance to the otherwise black interior.Published References

Washington, Seldon, "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 5, no. 4, 1962, p. 85.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 32, repr. pl. 50, profile drawing fig. 11.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Bloesch, Foremen attischer Schalen, Berne, 1940, pp. 31-35, the Hischylos Class, the Toledo cup is very like pl. 8, no. 4.

cf. Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 2nd ed., 1963, p. 146 ff., (for the Epeleios Painter) and p. 87 ff. (for the Euergides Painter).