Artworks

Covered in black slip, the outside is strikingly decorated in thick white and red slip, with superposed pairs of eyes beneath serpentine eyebrows, those on one side further apart than the other; between the eyebrows a simple palmette. The pupils and irises neatly incised with a compass. The tondo is painted with the head of a gorgon, the details incised, hair and tongue with added red and the teeth picked out in white. Reserved areas include a narrow band beneath the main decoration, the resting surface, the outer edge of the foot and the incised fillet on the upper neck; dribbles of black slip within the reserved handle panels. Recomposed from fragments with one lacunae. Pairs of holes where ancient restoration was made using staples.
This ‘A’ type cup appears to be unique, the only known Attic vessel with eyes decorated in this technique.

Provenance

Private collection, Germany; acquired 1950s
Private collection, Denderstreek, Belgium

Literature

There is a parallel in the Munich Glyptotek, which mentions this vase in a publication of 1997

Publications

Charles Ede Ltd., Pottery from Athens (London, 2003), no.11