Kantharos (Wine Cup) (310-280 BCE): Artwork and History

Kantharos (Wine Cup) (310-280 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Greek; Apulia, Italy probably made in Canosa, said to have been found in Tarento, Italy.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This style of cup, with its tall, thin stem and symmetrical handles, is called a kantharos. The form was extremely popular for drinking wine in ancient Greece. An inscription near the lip reads [i]Aphrodites[/i], dedicating the vessel “to Aphrodite.” This represents a fitting tribute to the goddess of pleasure and beauty, who was also romantically linked to the wine god, Dionysos.

Object facts

• Title: Kantharos (Wine Cup)
• Date: 310-280 BCE
• Artist attribution: Greek; Apulia, Italy probably made in Canosa, said to have been found in Tarento, Italy
• Place of origin: Apulia
• Medium: Terracotta with traces of gilding
• Dimensions: 20.6 × 19.6 × 13 cm (8 1/8 × 7 3/4 × 5 1/8 in.)
• Type: Vessel
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1889.26

Collection credit

Gift of Philip D. Armour and Charles L. Hutchinson

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.