Little Master Lip cup (Attic black-figure ware)
550 BCE
Medium
earthenware
Measurements
13.2 × 28.4 × 21.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1969
© Public Domain
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts - Great Hall Costume Corridor
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
This drinking vessel is called a lip cup because the zone below the lip, or rim, is delineated from the lower part of the cup and decorated. On each side is the head of a woman, painted in outline with delicate detail. Under the woman’s head is a line of meaningless Greek letters that are purely decorative. ‘Little Master’ derives from the signatures of master painters and potters on similar cups of the period. The miniaturist decoration of female heads in profile was a favourite motif for painters of Little Master cups. The decorationon this cup is attributed to the Group of Berlin 1803, based upon the shape of the woman’s head and her particular facial features.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Attica, Greece
Inscription
inscribed on each side, under the female head in Greek script: (a row of meaningless Greek letters)
Accession Number
D118-1969
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 small, two-handled, stemmed cup decorated in the miniaturist style with a woman's head on either side of the lip; the head of a young woman in a red cap with lattice pattern (incised), red peplos, earrings and necklace. On the reserved band below the lip is a row of meaningless letters and a palmette tendril either side of the handles. The interior, handles, stem and base are black-glazed.