Description, Function, Attribution, and Analysis of a Red-figure Type B Kylix

The durability of clay has brought forth an immense abundance of Greek pottery, a craft mastered by Athenian artists. Archeologists have found hundreds of varieties in creation, shape, function, style, and artwork in Archaic vases. The museum has been blessed with one of these priceless artifacts; it is the duty of this establishment to accumulate as much data as possible surrounding the vase. In first identifying technique, dimensions, and condition, as well as describing shape, ornament, and figural scenery, one may then begin to analyze the vase. This serves the general purpose of understanding where the artifact stands in Greek culture and history. Through the examination and research of figural scenes, it is then possible to compare these to other scenes and styles of the same and other painters. Finally, one can then hypothesize where, why, and how this piece was used.

The Athenian vase can be identified as a red-figure Type B Kylix. The height of the vase vacillates between 12.1 and 12.3 centimeters, and the diameter of the foot is roughly 12.5 centimeters. Whereas the diameter of the mouth varies between 33.1 and 33.5 centimeters, the diameter with handles is close to 41.5 centimeters. The vase is completely restored, a condition in which pieces on the body of the vase are glued back together.

The bottom of the foot is decorated with subsidiary ornamentation, but the design cannot be distinguished due to the condition of the kylix. A reserved save band runs around the step of the foot. Beneath the artwork is subsidiary ornamentation in the style of circumscribed and horizontal palmettes. A reserved line lies where the lower body meets the stem. The body of the kylix joins into the stem without an abrupt junction, and the foot is convex in profile. Along the exterior, two handles curve upwards along opposite sides of the kylix. Both the upper surface and the inside of the handles are reserved, with the area of the body behind them.

The single figural scene on the front body of the kylix roughly depicts a battle between centaurs and human characters. It also includes animal figures. Starting from the left, there is a bearded and mustached male centaur with long, pointed ears. Above the waist, his head and bare torso are human; below the waist, his buttocks, legs, and hooves resemble the body of a horse. He clenches a spear from behind in his left h...

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...comparing the kylix with those of an earlier and later date, one can see that the Greeks were an extremely progressive culture that could make leaps and bounds in art in only a matter of two decades. Though the ideal Greek concept of hero depicts Heracles as impassive and undaunted in this kylix, Euripides suggests that the society also honored his grounded qualities like love, emotion, and sympathy. These conjectures are an important addition to current knowledge of ancient Greece as archeologists move towards further exciting discoveries.

Alan H. Griffiths, “Centaurs”, Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, 2003, The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 309

J.D. Beazley, 1984, Attic Red Figure Vase Painters, Vol. 2 (New York: Hacker Art Books), 124-127

A.T. Clark, 2002, Understanding Greek Vases (Los Angeles: J Paul Getty Museum), 53

M.G. Kanowski, 1984, Containers of Classical Greece (New York: University of Queensland Press), 63-67

J. Boardman, 1975, Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Archaic Period (London: Thames and Hudson), 121, ill. 170

J. Falconer and T. Mannack, 2002, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 925, ill. 19