The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 17, 2024
Black-Figure Eye Cup: Iris and Satyrs (A, B); Gorgoneion (I)
c. 520–510 BCE
Location: 102B Greek
Did You Know?
The eye cup takes its name from the large eyes on its exterior.Description
Along with two large sets of eyes on its exterior, this drinking vessel also features other figures: a winged female, probably Iris, between each pair of eyes, and pairs of satyrs flanking them; a winged dolphin beneath each handle; and a frontal Gorgoneion, or face of Medusa, baring her teeth and tongue within the tondo. Although the eyes and Gorgoneion may serve to ward off evil, they also make for fluid identities while drinking, inviting drinkers to enter the mythical realm. For when tilting such cups to imbibe, drinkers confront monstrous beings while simultaneously masking their faces from others.- ?-1926Adolf Preyes, Munich, Germany, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art1926-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 331757 www.beazley.ox.ac.ukBeazley, J. D. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. p. 630, no. 3Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 15, Plates 22, I&3, and 20,3 www.beazley.ox.ac.ukCooney, John D. “Way Stations on the Primrose Path.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 61, no. 7 (1974): 240–46. Ill. Fig. 3. www.jstor.orgCarpenter, 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. 145
- {{cite web|title=Black-Figure Eye Cup: Iris and Satyrs (A, B); Gorgoneion (I)|url=false|author=|year=c. 520–510 BCE|access-date=17 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1926.514