- Museum number
- 1883,1208.1
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured cup.
INTERIOR: Hermes. Hermes flies to the right in a running pose, his head turned back to the left and down. He holds a lyre (red plektron attached with red cord) in his left hand and a kerykeion up over his shoulders in his right. The god wears a peaked cap, short chiton (dilute glaze folds above waist), chlamys (two line border) tied at the neck (brooch decorated with a cross) and winged boots. Beneath his feet is the sea, represented by a reserved area with a wavy upper contour.
Border: complex running maeander (eight-stroke core, anticlockwise).
EXTERIOR: athletes.
Side A (upper): three athletes and a trainer. On the left an athlete moves to the right holding a halter in either hand (right hand missing, but end of halter visible). He has a red band in his hair, as do all the other athletes on this cup. In front of him an athlete moves to the right holding an akontion in either hand, red loops attached to both (agkulai). On the right of the centre a youthful trainer in himation (black border) moves away to the right, but looks back to the left. He holds a forked stick low in his right hand and has a red wreath in his hair. On the far right an athlete holding a discus in his lowered left hand moves to the left.
Side Β (lower): three athletes and a trainer. On the left an athlete with a halter in either hand moves to the right. In front of him an athlete moves to the left, a discus with a silhouette owl on it low in his left hand. On the right of the centre a youthful trainer wearing a himation (black border) moves to the left, his right hand raised and his left holding a forked stick up to the right, parallel to his forearm. He has a red wreath in his hair. On the far right an athlete moves away to the right, holding a pair of halters back in his right hand and an akontion with a red loop down in his left. His chest is frontal and his head, now missing, was probably turned back to the left.
Ground line: single reserved line.
Relief contour throughout (except hair); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; reserved line inside and outside lip.
- Production date
- 495BC-490BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 14 centimetres (of exterior ground line)
-
Diameter: 15.20 centimetres (of tondo)
-
Diameter: 29.20 centimetres
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Width: 38 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- CVA British Museum 9
Bibliography: E. Braun, AdI 1846, 228-38 (with MdI 4, pl. 33); Murray DGV no. 37 (I); VA 106 no. 101; Hoppin ii 99 no. 63; AV 220,148; ARV 307, 93; Bloesch FAS 91 no. 3; ARV2 467, 133 and p. 1654; Para 378; Nachbaur Makron 34, 99 and 166 (cat. M. 8); Beazley Add2 245.
Placed in the style of Douris by Murray; Smith repeated this, but with a question mark. Attributed by Beazley to Makron as an 'early'work (cf. comment on GR 1952.12-2.8). Nachbaur places it in the second phase of her early group (500-490 BC). It is a bare work of Makron's early period. Bloesch attributed the potting to Hieron.
The bareness of the decoration on the exterior links this piece with other early works (see Beazley in C.B. iii 31 on no. 138). Of other athletic cups, the Copenhagen cup (ARV2 467, 131) should be earlier, while the Louvre fragments (ARV2 468, 137-8) should be contemporary. The athletes on the exterior recall similar groups on works of Douris' early middle period (e.g. ARV2 430, 29-35).
In addition to Hermes, Makron treats the female divine messenger, Iris, on two tondi (ARV2 460, 15 and 478, 307). For the owl, and other symbols, on diskoi see J.D. Beazley, JHS 28 (1908) 316-7: he suggests the owl on this vase is 'the short-bodied Athene noctud. The bird also occurs on the earlier cup in Copenhagen, noted above.
- Location
- On display (G20a/dc2)
- Condition
- Made up from many fragments; surface rubbed; foot missing; one large rim fragment and several wall fragments missing.
- Acquisition date
- 1883
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1883,1208.1
