Cup (Attic red-figure ware)
450 BCE
Medium
earthenware
Measurements
14.0 × 43.3 × 34.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1956
© Public Domain
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts - Great Hall Costume Corridor
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
All the scenes on this cup are concerned with music, an important part of a boy’s education in ancient Greece. On the cup’s interior, or tondo, a young boy plays an aulos, or double flute, while a friend listens. The exterior depicts Nike, goddess of victory, crowning a youth with a red garland. Around the other side a youth holds a lyre while another stands in front of his teacher, listening to him playing the flute. In the background are objects associated with school or athletics. This real-life scene provides a window into the life of the privileged, educated few, on a vessel that was perhaps used at a symposium or drinking party.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Attica, Greece
Inscription
inscribed in tondo in Greek script: HO PAIS KALOS
Accession Number
1644-D4
Department
Antiquities
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Physical description
A two-handled, stemmed cup decorated in red-figure. In the tondo, circled by a lotus band is a youth, seated, and playing the two-reeded flute to a standing, draped youth, with a lyre in the field. On the exterior, music lessons. Side A: Nike crowns a successful pupil. Side B: Boy with lyre and a flute lesson. In the field, tablet, stylus, scraper, lyre, T-square, instrument case etc.. Below is a band of meander.