Exekias Dionysos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2044 n2

The Dionysus Cup is the modern name for one of the best known works of ancient

Greek vase painting Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispr ...

, a ''

kylix In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix ( , ; ; also spelled ''cylix''; : kylikes , ) is the most common type of cup in the period, usually associated with the drinking of wine. The cup often consists of a rounded base and a thin stem under ...

'' (drinking cup) dating to 540–530 BC. It is one of the masterpieces of the

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

black-figure Black-figure pottery painting (also known as black-figure style or black-figure ceramic; ) is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th a ...

potter

Exekias Exekias (, ''Exēkías'') was an ancient Greek vase painter and potter who was active in Athens between roughly 545 BC and 530 BC. Exekias worked mainly in the black-figure technique, which involved the painting of scenes using a clay slip ...

and one of the most significant works in the

Staatliche Antikensammlungen The Staatliche Antikensammlungen (, ''State Collections of Antiquities'') is a museum in Munich's Kunstareal holding Bavaria's collections of antiquities from Ancient Greek art, Greece, Etruscan art, Etruria and Roman art, Rome, though the sculpt ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Description

The cup is 13.6 cm high and has a diameter of 30.5 cm. It is complete and composed of only a few large

sherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

. The inside image, the tondo, takes up almost the entire interior of the cup. In the centre, a sailing ship is depicted, travelling from right to left. The prow of the ship is decorated like an animal's head, while the rudder is clearly discernable at the rear. Within the ship is a well over life sized figure, the god

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

. The sail, unlike the rest of the image, is painted white, a common stylistic element in the black figure style.

Vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

s grow from the mast, with three large clusters of grapes on the right and four on the left. Dolphins swim below the ship—two towards the right, three towards the left—and a further dolphin is found on the right and the left hand sides of it. Although this is not realistic perspective, it could indicate that the dolphins are swimming around the ship. Like the vine, dolphins are symbols of

. In addition to this broad outline of the image, there are many detailed features. Two small dolphins are incised on the side of the ship. The long-haired, bearded god wears an

ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern ...

crown and holds a

cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (; ), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. In Greek, it was called the " horn of ...

in his hand. His

tunic A tunic is a garment for the torso, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the ankles. It might have arm-sleeves, either short or full-length. Most forms have no fastenings. The name deri ...

bears a fine pattern. On the outside, around each of the handles, six warriors stand over a corpse. The space between the handles is decorated with a stylised face with large eyes and a small nose.

Context

Two meanings have been suggested for the interior image. Most common is the suggestion that is a reference to the seventh

Homeric Hymn The ''Homeric Hymns'' () are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. The hymns praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, often involving a deity's birth, their acceptance among the gods ...

, in which it is explained how Dionysus was kidnapped by

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *Etruscan civilization (1st millennium BC) and related things: **Etruscan language ** Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan coins **Etruscan history **Etruscan myt ...

pirates, who were unaware of his identity. The god confuses their thoughts and causes them to jump into the water, where they transform into dolphins. A second possibility is that the arrival of Dionysus at the Athenian

Anthesteria The Anthesteria (; ) was one of the four Athenian festivals in honor of Dionysus. It was held each year from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion, around the time of the January or February full moon. The three days of the feast were ...

is depicted. The images around the handles probably depict the battles for the corpses of

Patroclus In Greek mythology, Patroclus (generally pronounced ; ) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and an important character in Homer's ''Iliad''. Born in Opus, Patroclus was the son of the Argonaut Menoetius. When he was a child, he was exiled from ...

and

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...

, with the naked corpse being Patroclus.

Innovation

The cup shows numerous technical innovations. As a potter, Exekias took older forms and reshaped them into a completely new one. This form, the so-called ''Cup type A'' with a thicker foot, a ring around the stem, and a deep, broad bowl, would quickly become the dominant form. The "

eye-cup Eye-cup is the term describing a specific cup type in ancient Greek pottery, distinguished by pairs of eyes painted on the external surface. Description Classified as ''kylix (drinking cup), kylikes'' in terms of shape, eye-cups were especia ...

" motif was originally introduced by Exekias, possibly with this piece. Later on the nose in between the eyes grew rarer. The decoration around the handles was similarly new, but unlike the other innovations it did not catch on. Neither did the tondo nearly completely filling the inside of the cup, which was notably imitated later on by the Penthesilea Painter, but is otherwise rather uncommon. Hitherto it had been common in general for the interior of a cup to be decorated with a small tondo depicting a gorgoneion. Also new, but only employed experimentally for a few years and then only rarely was the technique of

Intentional Red An intention is a mental state in which a person commits themselves to a course of action. Having the plan to visit the zoo tomorrow is an example of an intention. The action plan is the ''content'' of the intention while the commitment is the '' ...

, in which the background was made an intense, dark red clay. For this too, the cup is the earliest example. Inside of the cup, the decoration has no horizon line or specific orientation other than the ship and the grapes.

History

It is known that Exekias was the potter, since he signed the foot with an inscription reading EΞΣΕΚΙΑΣ ΕΠΟΕΣΕ ("Exsekias made this"). The attribution of the painting to him derives from stylistic comparisons. Although the internal chronology of Exekias' works is still not fully understood, the cup is generally placed among his later works. The exact date varies between 540 and 530 BC. The cup was found during

Lucien Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (; born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to ...

's excavations at

Vulci Vulci or Volci ( Etruscan: ''Velch'' or ''Velx'', depending on the romanization used) was a rich Etruscan city in what is now northern Lazio, central Italy. As George Dennis wrote, "Vulci is a city whose very name... was scarcely remembered, ...

and acquired for

Ludwig I of Bavaria Ludwig I or Louis I (; 25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868) was King of Bavaria from 1825 until the German revolutions of 1848–49, 1848 revolutions in the German states. When he was crown prince, he was involved in the Napoleonic Wars. As ki ...

in 1841.

References

Bibliography

John Beazley Sir John Davidson Beazley (; 13 September 1885 – 6 May 1970) was a British classical archaeologist and art historian, known for his classification of Attic vases by artistic style. He was professor of classical archaeology and art at the U ...

. ''Attic Black-figure Vase-painters.'' Clarendon Press, Oxford 1956, p. 146 No. 21. * John Boardman. ''Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen. Ein Handbuch.'' Zabern, Mainz 1977, , p. 64. * Matthias Steinhart. "Exekias" in '' Künstlerlexikon der Antike.'' Vol. 1. Saur, München, Leipzig 2001, pp. 249–252. *

Thomas Mannack Thomas Mannack (born in 1958) is a German classical archaeologist. Mannack obtained his doctorate in 1992 with at the University of Kiel. The thema of his dissertation was ''Beazleys spätere und späteste Manieristen''. The thesis was later p ...

. ''Griechische Vasenmalerei. Eine Einführung.'' Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, , p. 121. * Berthold Fellmann. ''München, Antikensammlungen, ehemals Museum antiker Kleinkunst.'' Vol. 13: ''Attische schwarzfigurige Augenschalen'' (= '' Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Deutschland.'' Vol. 77). C. H. Beck, München 2004, , pp. 14–19 tbl. 1–4.

External links

Attic Black-figure Eye cup of Exekias (München, Staatliche Antikensammlung)
in the archaeological database Arachne {{Greek drinking cups Individual ancient Greek vases Staatliche Antikensammlungen Dionysus in art 6th-century BC artifacts Archaeological discoveries in Italy 1841 archaeological discoveries 540s BC Dolphins in art Ships in art Ludwig I of Bavaria Individual drinking vessels