Attic Black Figure Band Skyphos
- Date
- 600-550 BC, Lydian
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 6548
- Museum Inventory No.
- 6548
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- P84.057
- Material
- Ceramic
- Object Type
- Pottery
- Pottery Shape
- Band Skyphos
- Pottery Ware
- Attic Black Figure
- Pottery Attribution
- Group of Louvre CP10252
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- MMS
- Trench
- MMS-I 84.1
- Locus
- MMS-I 84.1 Locus 34
- B-Grid Coordinates
- E145.7 - E149 / S67.2 - S70 *100.46 - 100.43
- Description
Forty-nine fragments of a nearly complete cup, which, however, lacks the upper third of the body on one side and small fragments from the foot and other side. The lip is everted, the foot low and flared. The handles rise markedly from their point of attachment to the body.
Exterior: the handle zone is reserved and is decorated by a horizontal line near the top, and at either side, near the handle, by a palmette with ten petals, alternating black and purple, and a purple heart. A purple fillet decorates the upper part of the tendril. In the center of the handle zone are two confronted panthers. The right one's tail is partly hidden by the palmette. Head, neck. and chest are decorated with a white-dot rosette, and more dots appear on the face and neck. Added purple is found on the shoulders, between the ribs, and on the hindquarters. Double-incised lines mark the forelegs. On the reverse is the same scene, but only the lower part of the palmette and legs of the animals remain. A narrow reserved band encircles the cup below. Interior: black glaze.
The piece has been burned, especially on the lip. The glaze is very fine, and the painting miniaturist and delicate. Both painting style and shape suggest a date just before the mid-sixth century. The Group of Louvre CP10252 was identified by Joan T. Haldenstein (by letter).
- Dimensions
- H. 0.14; diam. of foot 0.065; diam. of rim 0.107.
- Comments
- See Also
- See also: LATW Cat. 102
- Bibliography
- Published: Ramage, “Attic Cups”; BASOR Suppl. 25 (1987) 28, fig. 13, and 66, fig. 10. Compare the panthers especially to CVA Paris, Cab. Med. 2, pl. 47, nos. 9--11. For the shape, which is an early form of the Hermogenean skyphos, J. D. Beazley, Greek Vases in Poland (Oxford 1928) 3-4, n. 6, latter part; and K. S. Gorbunova, Attic Black-Figure Vases in the Hermitage (Leningrad 1983) 58, no. 38 (in Russian). I am grateful to C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., for the last reference. For a discussion of the excavation context, see BASOR Suppl. 25 (1987) 25--31. Lydians and Their World, cat. 102.
- Author
- NHR