Getty Museum
Attic Red-Figure Cup Fragment
Creator
Akestorides PainterPainter
All works by this person →Working in Athens in the 500s B.C, the Akestorides Painter decorated vases in the red-figure technique. He appears to have learned his craft from one of the leading painters of the preceding generation, Douris. Although the Akestorides Painter's surviving works include several vase shapes, he specialized in decorating cups. His work focused on scenes from daily life, especially athletics, school s
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 470–450 B.C.
- Medium
- Terracotta
- Culture
- Greek (Attic)
- Department
- Vessels
- Institution
- Getty Museum
By the early 400s B.C., professional teachers had established schools in Athens. These teachers, who specialized in various aspects of education, provided training for the male children of parents who could afford to pay the tuition. The most basic education in one of these schools would have involved reading and writing and perhaps arithmetic. At about the same time, scenes of youths at school learning their lessons began to appear on Athenian vases, part of a growing interest on the part of vase painters in depicting scenes of daily life. This small red-figure cup fragment shows a boy holding a scroll while another person, perhaps his teacher, stands in front of him. Scholars have disagreed over what the scroll says. Some read it as the beginning of a list of mythological figures. Others see it as a fragment from an epic poem by Hesiod, "The Catalog of Women." This school scene comes from the interior of the cup. On the exterior, only the feet of two figures remain.
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