Getty Museum

Black-Figure Kylix

Date

about 570 B.C.

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek (Lakonian)

Department

Vessels

Institution

Getty Museum

Decorating the interior of this kylix (drinking cup) is a scene of Bellerophon battling the Chimaira, a fire-breathing creature with the body of a lion, a goat protruding from its back, and a tail in the form of a snake. In his right hand, the hero holds the reins of his winged horse, Pegasus, who rears up to meet the monster. Bellerophon is shown in the kneeling pose used to characterize quick movement in Greek art of the Archaic period (about 700–480 B.C.). The decoration on the exterior of the vessel is dominated by three ornamental friezes encircling the underside of the bowl: a row of pomegranates with double petals, upright tongues painted alternately black and purple, and a frieze of broad upright rays. Palmettes extend horizontally from the bases of the handles. Stemmed drinking cups like this one were a specialty of Laconia, the region around Sparta. The painter of this vessel has been identified as the Boreads Painter, who directed one of the most important pottery workshops in Sparta sometime during the years between 575 and 550 B.C. As with most Greek vase-painters, the real name of the Boreads Painter is unknown, and he is identified only by the style of his work, namely his particular way of drawing figures and his habit of encircling the pictures on the interior of his cups with a band of pomegranates. He is called the Boreads Painter after one of his tondo designs, which shows the Boreads, the sons of the North Wind.

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