Eye-cup is the term describing a specific cup type in

ancient Greek pottery 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 dispro ...

, distinguished by pairs of eyes painted on the external surface.

Description

Classified as '' kylikes'' in terms of shape, eye-cups were especially widespread in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

and

Chalkis Chalcis (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: , ), also called Chalkida or Halkida (Modern Greek: , ), is the chief city of the island of Euboea or Evia in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved fro ...

in the second half of the sixth century BC. The bowl of the eye-cup rests on a short squat foot; both sides are dominated by large painted pairs of eyes under arched eyebrows. The eyeballs are painted in silhouette style, later often filled with white paint or painted white on black. Some eyes are "female", i.e. almond-shaped and without tear-ducts. Often, a stylized nose is placed centrally between the eyes. While used as a

drinking vessel A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, polys ...

, due to the necessary inclination of the vessel, the cup with its painted eyes, the handles looking like ears and the base of the foot like a mouth, would have resembled a mask. Many of the vases also bear dionysiac imagery. The eyes are assumed to have served an

apotropaic Apotropaic magic (From ) or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of superstition or out of tr ...

(evil-averting) function.

Types

Eye-cups were painted by various painters, mostly in the black-figure style, but later also in the red-figure style. The earliest bilingually painted vases, those with both styles, include specimens of eye-cups with a black-figure interior and a red-figure exterior. The introduction of this bilingual type and its specific decoration into Attic vase painting is attributed to

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 ...

. His eye-cup in Munich, dated 530–540 BC, is considered a masterpiece of the type. It depicts

Dionysos In ancient Greek religion and 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 ; ) by the Greek ...

, lying in a symposiast posture on a ship. His divine nature is indicated by his attributem, a vine, growing from the mast.

Painters or groups

Other well-known examples of eye-cups are by the following painters or groups: * Amasis Painter; he painted several eye-cups of a variant shape with non-carinated profile (Type B) John Boardman, Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen, Übers. v. Florian Felten, Mainz 1977, , p. 118 * Andokides *

Antiphon Painter The Antiphon Painter () is the Notname for an Athenian red-figure vase-painter active in ancient Greece during the early 5th century BC. He owes his name to a double Kalos inscription of Antiphon on the dinos stand in the Antique collection of ...

Epiktetos Epiktetos was an Attic vase painter in the early red-figure style. Besides Oltos, he was the most important painter of the Pioneer Group. He was active between 520 BCE and 490 BCE. His name translates as "newly acquired", which is most probably ...

: bilingual eye-cups John Boardman, Schwarzfigurige Vasen aus Athen, Übers. v. Florian Felten, Mainz 1977, , p. 124 * Ghost Painter * Painter of Nicosia Olpe * Hischylos * Krokotos Group * Leafless Group; they continued the basic eye-cup shape with later variants, often lacking the large pair of eyes * Lydos Group *

Lysippides Painter The Lysippides Painter was an Attica, Attic vase painter in the black-figure vase painting, black-figure style. He was active around 530 to 510 BC. His conventional name comes from a kalos inscription on a vase in the British Museum attributed to ...

* Mastos Painter *

Nikosthenes Nikosthenes was a potter of Greek black- and red-figure pottery in the time window 550–510 BC. He signed as the potter on over 120 black-figure vases, but only nine red-figure. Most of his vases were painted by someone else, called Painter N ...

Oltos Oltos was a Late Archaic Greek vase painter, active in Athens from 525 BC to 500 BC. About 150 works by him are known. Two pieces, a cup in Berlin ( Antikensammlung F 2264) and a cup in Tarquinia (Museo Nazionale Tarquiniese RC 6848), are signe ...

: bilinguals * Pheidippos: bilinguals * Skythes: bilinguals * Group of Walters 48.42, specialising in frontal views of masks of Dionysos, and of

satyr In Greek mythology, a satyr (, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( ), and sileni (plural), is a male List of nature deities, nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exaggerated erection. ...

s and

maenad In Greek mythology, maenads (; ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of his retinue, the '' thiasus''. Their name, which comes from μαίνομαι (''maínomai'', “to rave, to be mad; to rage, to be angr ...

s between the eyes, and gorgoneia on the cup interior A special type is the Chalkidian style of cup, of which further variants exist.

History

Dating is often difficult, but the majority of eye-cups were probably produced between 540 and 500 BC, perhaps up to 480 BC. They were also exported to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in large quantities. The majority of vases of this type were found as grave goods in

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 ...

chamber tombs.

References

Bibliography

* Corpus vasorum antiquorum. Deutschland. Hrsg. Komm. f. d. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum b. d. Bay. Akad. d. Wiss. /Union Académique Internationale.Bd 77: München, Antikensammlung Band 13. Attische Augenschalen. Bearb. Fellmann, Berthold. 2004. * Friedrich Wilhelm Handorf, in: Klaus Vierneisel, Bert Kaeser (eds.), Kunst der Schale - Kultur des Trinkens, München 1990, p. 418 f. *Norbert Kunisch: ''Die Augen der Augenschalen'', in: Antike Kunst 33 1990

External links

Kylix: eye–cup (drinking cup), ca. 530 b.c.; black–figure Greek. Obverse and reverse, between eyes: Theseus and the Minotaur
at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Athenian eyecups of the Late Archaic Period by Andrew Prentice

Raimund Wünsche, "Trinken aus den Augen" - Griechische Augenschalen, aviso 2005,/4

A clip showing how these vases resembled a mask
(YouTube link) {{Greek drinking cups Ancient Greek pot shapes Eyes in culture Masks in Europe