Terracotta fragment of a kylix (drinking cup)
Unknown Artist
second quarter of the 5th century BCE
Medium
Terracotta
Classification
Vases
Culture & Period
Greek, Attic · Classical
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
2011.604.1.4291
Art Historical Context
This delicate terracotta fragment from a kylix, or drinking cup, hails from Attic Greece in the second quarter of the5th century BCE, the height of the Classical period. Crafted in Athens, the epicenter of ancient Greek artistry, kylikes like this were essential for symposia—lively social gatherings where elite men reclined, drank wine, and debated philosophy or recited poetry. Though only a fragment survives, it evokes the refined world of Periclean Athens, a age of democracy, drama, and monumental sculpture. Attic potters mastered terracotta vases, firing clay at high temperatures and often...