Fayetteville 56.25.15
Attic Red-Figure Kylix
Collection of the University of Arkansas
Museum, Fayetteville (56.25.15)
Attributed to Oltos [Hecht]
Ca. 510 B.C.
Height: 6.7 cm.
Diameter: 18.6 cm.
Diameter with handles: 24.5 cm. Interior:
Woman with krotala.
This simple cup, undecorated on the exterior, has a single figure
within a reserved circle on the interior. She is a buxom woman, dressed in a
long pleated
chiton with an ample overfold at
the waist. Her curly, black hair is tied with a long red fillet and she sports a
round, black earring. She is moving to the left, perhaps dancing, as she holds a
pair of
krotala or castanets in her hands.
The woman with her pinched nose, frowning mouth and excessively long
feet is typically Oltan. Oltos, whose name is known from two signed cups, was a
prolific cup-painter in the early years of red-figure (ca. 525-500 B.C.). He
depicted many such music-making women whose identification is determined by
their context. When accompanied by satyrs, they are clearly maenads; when nude
or at a symposium, obviously
hetairai or
prostitutes. Since neither this singleton nor her "sister" on a similar cup at
Mount Holyoke College (
Para., 328, 127
ter.) has a clear-cut context, they remain simply dancing women.
Bibliography
Vente
Publique X 22-23 June 1951 (Bale: Monnaies et
Médailles) pl. 20, no. 413;
ARV2, 66, 130;
Maule 1971, 86-87, pl. 21, figs. 1-2. On Oltos:
Bruhn 1943.
Jenifer Neils
