Black-Figure Kotyle (Drinking Cup): Chain of Women (c. 590–560 BCE, with modern repainting and reincising): Art, History and Details

Black-Figure Kotyle (Drinking Cup): Chain of Women (c. 590–560 BCE, with modern repainting and reincising) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Patras Painter (Greek, Middle Corinthian).

The work and its context

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

Reassembled from 34 fragments, this cup bears ancient decoration that has been made more legible through modern repainting and re-incising, or re-scratching, of the internal details of figures and rosettes. Because they are irreversible and potentially misleading, such modern interventions are no longer seen as acceptable; when sold in 1922, the cup was described as “repaired,” albeit without additional explanation.

Object facts

• Title: Black-Figure Kotyle (Drinking Cup): Chain of Women
• Date: c. 590–560 BCE, with modern repainting and reincising
• Creator attribution: Patras Painter (Greek, Middle Corinthian)
• Culture: Greek, Corinthian
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic
• Dimensions: Diameter: 14.3 cm (5 5/8 in.); Overall: 8.8 cm (3 7/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1923.221

A detail from the museum

The Patras Painter specialized in decorating drinking cups, often with chains of women.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Brummer Gallery Records. Cloisters (Museum), n.d.
• Anderson Galleries, Inc. Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Indian, Chinese and European Collections of Vladimir Simkhovitch. Sales Catalog, 12-14 January 1922.
• Amyx, Darrell A. Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

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.