Terracotta fragment of a kylix (drinking cup)
Unknown Artist
480–470 BCE
Medium
Terracotta
Classification
Vases
Culture & Period
Greek, Attic · Early 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
2011.604.1.4479
Art Historical Context
This delicate terracotta fragment from a kylix, or shallow drinking cup, hails from Attic Greece around 480–470 BCE, during the Early Classical period. Produced in Athens, the epicenter of Greek pottery, kylikes like this were essential for symposia—ively social gatherings where elite men reclined, drank wine, and debated philosophy or politics. Though only a fragment survives, it offers a glimpse into the refined craftsmanship of ancient vase-makers, who shaped clay on a potter's wheel and fired it in kilns to achieve its characteristic reddish hue. Artistically, Attic vases from this era ma...