Terracotta fragment of a kylix (drinking cup)
Unknown Artist
500–490 BCE
Medium
Terracotta
Classification
Vases
Culture & Period
Greek, Attic · Archaic
Department
Greek and Roman Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Dietrich von Bothmer, Distinguished Research Curator, Greek and Roman Art, 2011
Accession Number
2011.604.1.2690
Art Historical Context
This delicate terracotta fragment from a kylix, a shallow stemmed drinking cup, hails from Attic Greece around 500–490 BCE, during the late Archaic. Produced in Athens, the epicenter of ancient Greek pottery, kylikes like this were essential for symposia—lively social gatherings where elite men reclined, drank wine mixed with water, and engaged in philosophical discourse, poetry, and revelry. Though only a fragment survives, it exemplifies the exquisite craftsmanship of anonymous Attic vase-painters and potters, whose works bridged the Archaic and Classical eras. Terracotta, fired clay valued...