- Museum number
- 1867,0508.1064
- Description
-
BM Vase Catalogue
Pottery: red-figured kylix.
Interior, within thin red circle: A nude woman (hair looped up with purple band, earrings), body to front, head to right, holds in either hand a phallos. Around her right thigh is a circlet. On right, PΑΝΦΑΙΟΣ; on left, ΕΠΟΙΕΣΕΝ, Πάνφαιος έποίησεν.
Exterior (a): On left a bearded man in a pilos and short chiton (Hermes?) sits on a rock playing on a chelys with a plectrum attached by a cord. Before him, four bulls to left, the second of which turns its head towards him. Above, imitations of inscriptions, apparently travestied from the inscription on the interior.
(b) Dance of three Maenads and three bearded satyrs. (i from left) Bearded satyr, ithyphallic, holding in each hand a keras, looking round to right. (ii) Maenad (long chiton, hair looped up with purple band), castanets in right, swinging thyrsos in left, looking round to left. (iii) Bearded satyr (ithyphallic) to left, right foot raised, clapping his hands; (iv) Maenad to right, dressed as (ii), thyrsos in left, castanets in right. She is approached by (v), an old bearded satyr with bald wrinkled forehead and heavy eyebrows, who holds a thyrsos in right and extends left towards her (his face is partly worn away), (vi) Maenad, as before, dancing to right, body thrown back.
The exterior has suffered on the left of (a) from fire. Beneath each handle is a large ivy-leaf, red on black. Brown inner markings in interior, not in exterior. Sketch-marks throughout.
- Production date
- 520BC-500BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 30.48 centimetres
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Height: 11.43 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
-
BM Cat. Vases
Mus. Etr. 1303; Cat. Etr. 17; Klein, Meistersig2 p. 93, no. 14.
For the woman's circlet, σκυτίνη επικουρία, cf. Ar. Lysistr. 109.
The treatment of the drapery in (b) corresponds with that of BM Vase Ε12, the lower part having thick heavy folds, the upper part left without inner markings. The hair of the satyrs falls in single locks, which curl at the ends.
-
The reticent description of the interior scene in the original BM vase obscures its true nature, which is probably a representation of a courtesan or entertainer perfoming a sexually-explicit show, presumably at a symposium or associated event.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2022 19 May – 25 Sept, London, British Museum, G35, Feminine Power
2022 - 2023 8 Dec – 27 Aug, Canberra, National Museum of Australia, Feminine Power
2023 – 2024 5 Oct - 28 Jan, Barcelona, Caixaforum, Feminine Power
2024 29 Feb – 9 Jun, Madrid, Caixaforum , Feminine Power
- Condition
- Broken, but no major part of design lost.
- Acquisition date
- 1867
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1867,0508.1064
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: M126 (Museum Secretum)
