Mastoid (Drinking Cup)

Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

about 500-480 BCE

Attributed to the Caylus Painter
Greek; Athens

This cup was shaped to fit easily in the dirnkers hand, and was likely used as part of the Greek symposium. Much like modern academic symposiums, in which people discuss a topic of common interest, debunking old theories and putting forth new hypotheses; the men of ancient Athens regularly got together in private homes to exchange ideas. Afterward the participants might continue the conversation, discussing their impressions in greater detail or simply socializing over a drink. As the evening progressed, participants engaged in other pleasures, including games, performances, and sex. Wine played a major role in fueling these evenings, and as such the myriad vessels used in the symposium often paid homage to drink.

Here, in a continous scene that could be read much like today’s comic strips, the god of wine Dionysos (seated) is accompanied by his half man half goat followers called satyrs, identifiable by their thick beards and long tails, as well as one of his famle follower, a maenad. She is depicted dancing and the artist has rendered her with white glazed skin and a wide eyed expression.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Artist: Caylus Painter
Title: Mastoid (Drinking Cup)
Place: Athens (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 500 BCE–480 BCE
Medium: terracotta, black-figure
Dimensions: 8.3 × 10.5 × 10.5 cm (3 1/4 × 4 1/8 × 4 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Philip D. Armour and Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1889.21
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/176/manifest.json

William M.R. French, Notes [on a] journey to Europe with Mr. and Mrs. C.L. Hutchinson starting from New York Sat’y Mch. 9, 1889- , (unpublished manuscript, Art Institute of Chicago Archives), p. 25.
J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase Painters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956), p. 648, 239 (inv. no. incorrectly given as 89.26).
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 18.

Display Junior Museum, This is not a Greek Vase Show, November 1, 1984-January 29, 1986.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Human Figure in Early Greek Art - Preview Part I, Gallery 101A, September 1, 1988-September 24, 1989.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994-February 6, 2012.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012-June 26, 2017.

Augusto Mele, Naples, Italy; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago through J.C. Fletcher as agent, 1889; price reimbursed by Charles Hutchinson and Philip D. Armour, 1889.

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