Getty Museum

Attic Black-Figure Little Master Lip Cup

Date

about 540 B.C.

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek (Attic)

Department

Vessels

Institution

Getty Museum

A cock crouches with his head forward and his hackles raised on the lip of this Athenian black-figure Little Master cup. His pose reveals that he is a gamecock. Cock fighting was a favorite sport of Athenian youth. The cockfight came to be seen as a metaphor for human combat, with many fighting birds named after Greek mythological heroes. Cock imagery also has an erotic element in Athenian art, since cocks were a favorite gift from men to their boy lovers. Little Master cups, so named for their detailed miniature decoration, were introduced around 560 B.C. With a taller, slimmer profile than earlier cups, Little Master cups are divided into lip cups and band cups, easily differentiated by the placement of their decoration. Standard lip cups are decorated with a compact scene of one to three figures centered on each side of the lip, with an inscription below, in the zone between the handles. The inscription might be a motto, an artist's signature, or even just a nonsensical combination of letters, attesting to the decorative aspects of writing in this period when few people were literate.

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