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High-handled drinking cup (kantharos) in the form of two female heads
Greek
Late Archaic Period
about 510–480 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Overall: 19.2 x 14.3 cm (7 9/16 x 5 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number98.926
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
DescriptionThe joining of black and white female heads is unusual. On black-figure vases, white (i.e. Greek) women are often painted with the same white slip (liquid clay) as that used on the mouth of this cup, but on head vases they are always left in the reddish and the more lifelike color of the clay, heightened somewhat by a wash of yellow ochre, so the flesh is red, eyes white, and the iris black. The African woman smiles with her teeth showing; her eyes and eyebrows are white. Her hair is a mass of dots, with traces of red paint.
Above, the cup has a creamy reserved white band, with palmettes below a band with chequers. The inscriptions: "the boy is handsome" (Kalos ho pais), appear on both sides in a band beneath the palmettes.
Condition: repaired with some restoration.
Above, the cup has a creamy reserved white band, with palmettes below a band with chequers. The inscriptions: "the boy is handsome" (Kalos ho pais), appear on both sides in a band beneath the palmettes.
Condition: repaired with some restoration.
Inscriptions"Kalos ho pais"
ProvenanceSaid to be from Tanagra, Greece [see note 1]. 1897, sold by an individual in Greece to Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), London; 1898, sold by Edward Perry Warren to the MFA for $69,618.13 [see note 2]. (Accession Date: September 20, 1898)
NOTES:
[1] According to Warren's records. [2] Total price paid for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.
NOTES:
[1] According to Warren's records. [2] Total price paid for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.