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Chalcidian Eye Cup

Creator

Painter

In the late 500s B.C., the Phineus Painter decorated pottery in a style that scholars call "Chalkidian." In the mid-500s B.C., a Greek vase-painter, probably from Chalkis on the island of Euboea, established a pottery workshop somewhere in Italy, either in one of the Greek colonies in the south or perhaps in Etruria. Eventually a second generation led by the Phineus Painter took over this workshop

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Date: about 520 B.C.
Medium: Terracotta
Culture: Greek (Chalcidian)
Department: Vessels
Institution: Getty Museum

Many aspects of the symposium encouraged playful behavior, be it through song, jokes or trickery – all in the spirit of celebrating Dionysos, the god of wine. When a drinker held up this cup – with eyes, ears and a nose on each side - it would have functioned like a mask. The cup has a distinctive shape, with a deep bowl, a large foot with a tall, concave profile, and a thick ring joining the foot with the bowl. The strikingly angular form of the foot has led some to believe that the shape may derive from metal prototypes. Chalcidian pottery was made by a workshop of immigrant Greek vase-painters who had settled in southern Italy, perhaps at Reggio. Scholars call the style Chalcidian because some vases bear inscriptions written in the alphabet of the city of Chalkis in Greece.

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