- Museum number
- 1836,0224.131
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured cup.
INTERIOR: seated man and woman with jug. On the left is seated a bearded man dressed in a long chiton, dotted himation with a black border and shoes. He wears a double red headband with a loop and ties at the back. On his chair is spread an apparently circular or oval textile decorated with dotted cross-hatching and with a border of stopt maeanders. He holds a phiale in his right hand and gestures with his left. Facing him stands a woman in chiton, himation (black battlement upper border, plain lower) and headscarf, whose jewellery consists of a disc earring and a snake bracelet on the left wrist. She holds an oinochoe up in her right hand, with her left she fingers some folds of her chiton down by her side. Her rather awkward pose with upper body to left and lower body to right is presumably to be explained by imagining that she has just finished pouring wine into the man's phiale and is turning to walk away. Between and behind the figures is a fluted column with a plain block base and a Doric capital with architrave above [viae and guttae done in silhouette). Reserved exergue below.
Border: stopt maeander (four-stroke, anticlockwise).
EXTERIOR: Achilles and Memnon; Assembly of deities.
Side A (lower): duel between Achilles and Memnon. On the left a winged female wearing chiton, himation and disc earring moves forward to the right, her right arm raised, seemingly touching her double red hair-band, perhaps in a gesture of anxiety, her left arm outstretched. In the centre is the fight between Achilles and Memnon. Achilles, on the left, strides forward, a shield on his left arm (seen from the inside) and a spear held low in his right. He is clad in a fringed short chiton with wavy folds decorated with dots, cuirass, greaves and helmet. Memnon, dressed in short chiton, cuirass, black scabbard (with relief dots down the middle), double crested helmet with a red palmette on the back (circumscribed in dilute glaze) and greaves, sinks backwards braced by his big round shield. His legs face to the right, but his head and body are in back view. He still holds a machaira in his extended but drooping right hand, while his left hand has loosened its grip on the shield. On the right a winged female, who must be Eos, moves to the left. She wears a chiton, a himation, a sakkos, a snake bracelet and a disc earring. Her right arm is outstretched and her left (drawn with a right hand by mistake) is raised to the back of her head, in a gesture of dismay. Side Β (upper): Assembly of deities. On the left is seated a bearded male, presumably Zeus, who wears a long chiton and a dotted himation. He has a reserved fillet (decorated with two lines) in his hair. He holds a bossed phiale (with relief dots) in his right hand and his left rests on the shaft of a striped sceptre. There is an apparently circular or oval textile decorated with a dotted chequer pattern over his backless throne, which has volute finials (relief dot in the centre of each volute; dilute glaze strokes for wood grain). In front of him is a fluted column with a simple block base and a Doric capital. Next to the column stands a youth, dressed in a himation, who faces to the left. He is probably Ganymede. He proffers an oinochoe in his right hand. His hair, done up in segments at the back, is bound with a red apicate fillet. Behind him, in the centre, stands a bearded warrior, presumably Ares. He faces to the left and his left leg is frontal. He is equipped with a Corinthian helmet, shield (device: snake; sparse dots around rim), greaves and a spear and wears a short dotted chiton with wavy folds and a himation. Next to him, on the right, stands a winged woman in chiton, himation (black border) and headscarf (relief dots in hair over brow): she may be Nike or Iris. She holds an oinochoe in her right hand and gestures with her left, ready to wait on the goddess, probably Hera, who is seated on a stool on the far right, facing left. She holds a striped sceptre in her left hand and a phiale in her right. She wears a chiton and a dotted himation with a black border and her hair is held up at the back with the aid of a stephane with peaks (relief dots in hair over brow). Her throne is like that of Zeus (dilute glaze strokes for wood grain), the seat covered with an apparently circular or oval rug, decorated with dotted cross-hatching pattern. Under the handle behind Zeus is a leopard.
Ground line: border of stopt maeanders (four-stroke, anticlockwise).
Relief line contour throughout (except for the hair); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; narrow reserved line at junction of offset lip and bowl outside; added red for inscriptions.
- Production date
- 490BC-480BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 15 centimetres (of exterior ground line)
-
Diameter: 11.10 centimetres (of foot)
-
Height: 11.50 centimetres
-
Width: 38 centimetres (incl. handles)
-
Depth: 29.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- CVA British Museum 9
Bibliography: CabinetDurand lot 395; Hartwig M 361-2, 688 no. 51; Murray DGV no. 45; Hoppin i 131 no. 61; Tonks Brygos 113, no. 48; AV 184, 2; ARV 258, 3; Bloesch FAS 132 no. 15, pl. 35, 3 (B and foot); ARV2 386, 3; LIMC i sv Achilleus no. 836; LIMC vi pl. 236, Memnon no. 53 (A).
Attributed by Hartwig to Brygos and by Beazley to his Castelgiorgio Painter. This artist, named after the find-spot of one of his cups, is a rather weak imitator of the Brygos Painter. The London cup is particularly close to the cup in Palermo {AKV2 386, 4); and these two pieces bear some relation to Beazley's Painter of Agora P. 42 (ARV2 415-6) a 'Mild Brygan'. For a discussion of the shape see Vase E65, which is probably of the same time.
On Achilles and Memnon see A. Kossatz-Deissmann LIMC i 180-1 and vi 448-461; Schefold Sagen 195-6. For the scene of the departure of Ares, cf. D. Williams in E. Bohr and W. Martini (eds.), Studien zur Mythologie und Vasenmalerei (Festschrift für K. Schauenburg; Mainz 1986) 78. For the rear view of a helmeted head see D. Williams in New Perspectives 291 with note 23 (listing ARV2 8, 9; 149, 14; 653, 1). For the leopard see Vase E57. For the chitons with wavy folds see Vase E45. For circular or oval textiles over chairs or thrones cf. also three pieces by Douris (ARV2 431, 43 and 44; Getty 81AE.213, 85.AE.18 and 185, 88.AE.30 etc. fragments [phiale], M. Robertson, Getty Vases 5 [1991] 75-98, esp. fig. ix).
- Location
- On display (G20a/dc2)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2007 31 Mar-30 Jun, Gosport, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors & Heroes
20072008 3 Nov-24 Feb, Leicester, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors & Heroes
2008 29 Mar-1 Jun, Luton, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors & Heroes
2008 20 Jun-5 Oct, Lincoln, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors & Heroes
2008-2009 25 Oct-24 Jan, South Shields, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors & Heroes
2009 7 Feb-4 May, Glasgow, Ancient Greeks: Athletes, Warriors & Heroes
2010-2012 20 Oct-9 Dec, Luton, Wardown Park, Ancient Greeks
2017 13 Jul-15 Oct, Madrid, Caixa Forum, Ancient Greeks
2017-2018 23 Nov-18 Feb, Barcelona, Caixa Forum, Ancient Greeks
2018 20 Mar-24 Jun, Sevilla, Caixa Forum, Ancient Greeks
2018 24 Jul-4 Nov, Zaragoza, Caixa Forum, Ancient Greeks
2018-2019 18 Dec-31 Mar, Palma, Caixa Forum, Ancient Greeks
- Condition
- Made up from fragments: many chips at breaks and one small rim fragment missing.
- Acquisition date
- 1836
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1836,0224.131
