Skyphos with Animal Frieze

A small, round base flares out to the wide mount of this large skyphos, a vessel for drinking wine. The pale yellow clay contrasts with the dark black and red pigments used to decorate the cup. The main decorative frieze is framed above by a band of waved lines at the rim and a base ray below. Two panthers, a grazing goat, and a swan circle the vase, each rendered in red pigment and with incised lines. The space around them is filled to capacity with incised rosettes and black dots.

Corinth dominated the Mediterranean pottery industry from the second half of the seventh century BCE through the first half of the sixth century BCE. Corinthian ceramics were typically light yellow or white clay decorated with black, white, and red glazes. This style of pottery often uses Near Eastern, or “Orientalizing,” motifs, depicting real and mythological animals in registers crowded with incised rosettes.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Private collection [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1950, by gift.