The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 27, 2023

Red-Figure Eye Cup: Warriors (A), Musician and Youths (B)

c. 520 BC

attributed to Psiax

(Greek, Attic, active c. 525–505 BC)

and Group of Leipzig T 3599

Greek, Attic

Ceramic

Diameter of tondo: 6.4 cm (2 1/2 in.); Overall: 11.2 x 33.6 cm (4 7/16 x 13 1/4 in.); Diameter of rim: 26 cm (10 1/4 in.); Diameter of foot: 10.2 cm (4 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1976.89

Location

102B Greek

Fun Fact

The fallen warrior’s spear is done with added clay (shaft) and incision (head), not red-figure.

Description

Red-figure eye cups, like their more common black-figure brethren (including one in Cleveland), feature two large eyes on either side, producing a masking effect for drinkers. Typically, palmettes flank the eyes, with either a nose or figure at center. Here, the innovative painter Psiax, who worked in both black-figure and red-figure, moved the palmettes to the tondo and created three-figure compositions on each exterior side: two warriors converging on a fallen comrade (or enemy); and a youth playing a cithara for an audience of two. The experimental nature of early red-figure may explain the unusual spear and awkwardly twisted torso and lower leg of the central warrior.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Graffito on underside of foot: Ζωιιλος [ZOILOS, perhaps the name of an owner]

Group of Leipzig T 3599

Chalcidian vase painters
Provenance
1976-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 200027 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
Beazley, J. D. Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963. p. 38, No. 8, p. 7, No. 7
Arias, Paolo Enrico. Storia della ceramica di età arcaica, classica e ellenistica e della pittura di età arcaica e classica. Torino: Società editrice internazionale, 1963. pl. 61
Antikenmuseum (Bâle, Suisse), Ernst Berger, Margot Schmidt, and Karl Schefold. Führer durch das Antikenmuseum Basel. 1966. pp. 73-75
Beazley, J. D., J. D. Beazley, and J. D. Beazley. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters (Second Edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971. 321
Schauenburg, K. "Herakles bei Pholos," AM 87 (1971). p. 52, n. 41
Numismatica e antichità classiche: quaderni ticinesi. 1972. p. 37-55, figs. 1-10
Patitucci, Stella. Kylix di Psiax in una collezione ticinese. 1972. pp. 37-55, figs. -10
Schefold, Karl. "Die Dichterische Wirklichkeit Der Bildenden Kunst: Geschildert Vor Allem an Hauptwerken Des Basler Antikenmuseums Michael Stettier Zum 60. Geburtstag." Antike Welt 5, no. 1 (1974) p. 17, figs. 18-19 www.jstor.org
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1976." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (1977) p. 43 & 73 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 22 archive.org
Cohen, Beth. Attic Bilingual Vases and Their Painters. New York: Garland Pub, 1978. pp. 284-87, pl. 57
Schefold, Karl, and Luca Giuliani. Götter- und Heldensagen der Griechen in der spätarchaischen Kunst. München: Hirmer, 1978. p. 232, Fig. 311
Moon, Warren G. and Louise Berge. Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1979. Reproduced & mentioned: pp. 104-105, cat. 60
Mertens, Joan R. "Some New Vases By Psiax." Antike Kunst 22, no. 1 (1979) p. 13 www.jstor.org
Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC). Zürich: Artemis, 1981. pl. 287, no. 67
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Adele Z. Silver. Guide to the Galleries. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. pp. 13-14, fig. 12, 143, no. 12
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and reproduced : p. 13, no. 15
Burn, Lucilla, Ruth Glynn, and J. D. Beazley. Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1982. p. 72
Berger, Ernst. Antike Kunstwerke aus der Sammlung Ludwig. zahlr. Ill. 2. Terrakotten und Bronzen. 1982. 314 S. 2. Terrakotten und Bronzen. 1982. 314 S. Basel: Archäolog. Verl, 1982. 2:263, fig. 17
Paquette, D. L'Instrument de Musique dans la Céramique de la Grèce Antique (Lyon, 1984). pp. 118-19, C33
Frontisi-Ducroux, F. "Au miroir du masque," La Cité des Images (Lausanne, 1984). p. 156, fig. 220
Frontisi-Ducroux, F. "La mort en face," Metis 1.2 (1986). pp. 206-7, fig. 3
Korshak, Yvonne. Frontal Faces in Attic Vase Painting of the Archaic Period. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1987. p. 60, no. 160
Carpenter, Thomas H., J. D. Beazley, Thomas Mannack, Melanie Mendonça, and Lucilla Burn. Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1989. p. 151
Maas, Martha, and Jane McIntosh Snyder. Stringed Instruments of Ancient Greece. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. p. 77, fig. 15
Boardman, John. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Archaic Period : a Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989. fig. 15
Denoyelle, M. “Euphronios Peinture”, Recontres de l'École du Louvre, 10 (Octobre 1990). p. 15, fig. 1
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 9 archive.org
Bettini, Maurizio. La Maschera, il doppio e il ritratto: strategie dell'identità. Roma: Laterza, 1991. p. 151, fig. 11
Frontisi-Ducroux, Françoise. n.d. "Senza maschera né specchio: l' uomo greco e i suoi doppi". Maschera, Il Doppio E Il Ritratto : Strategie Dell' Identità / a Cura Di Maurizio Bettini. p. 151, fig. 11
Euphronios Peintre. Paris: Documentation Francaise, 1992. p. 15, fig. 1
Schefold, Karl, and Luca Giuliani. Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1992. p. 257, fig. 311
Frontisi-Ducroux, Françoise. Du masque au visage: aspects de l'identité en Grèce ancienne. [Paris]: Flammarion, 1995. p. 93, 165, fig. 40
Immerwahr, Henry R. A Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI). [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1998. p. 793, no. 3206
Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Fasc. 2. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. p. 37-40, pl. 75-77, fig. 6
Muth, Susanne. Gewalt im Bild: das Phänomen der medialen Gewalt im Athen des 6. und 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. p. 207, fig. 129
Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. pp. 37-40, PLS.(1821-1823) 75.1-2, 76.1-2, 77.1-7
Exhibition history

Antikenmuseum, Basel (since before 1971-76)

The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art (30 June-5 September 1982).

Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).

Lutes, Lovers, and Lyres: Musical Imagery in the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 14-June 11, 1989).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1976.89