Black-Figure Eye Cup: Iris and Satyrs (A, B); Gorgoneion (I) (c. 520–510 BCE): Art, History and Details

Black-Figure Eye Cup: Iris and Satyrs (A, B); Gorgoneion (I) (c. 520–510 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Black-Figure Eye Cup: Iris and Satyrs (A, B); Gorgoneion (I)
• Date: c. 520–510 BCE
• Culture: Greek, Attic
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Diameter: 21.3 cm (8 3/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1926.514

A detail from the museum

The eye cup takes its name from the large eyes on its exterior.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
• Beazley, J. D. Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
• Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.