Provenance:

Private Collection, New York, acquired in 1987.

Christie's, New York, Antiquities, 13 October 2020, Lot 40.

The Antiphon Painter, active circa 495-480 B.C., was a specialist in drinking cups. Sir John Beazley named him for the youth Antiphon, who is praised as kalos (beautiful) in inscriptions on his cups. Working in the circle of Euphronios and Onesimos, he painted scenes from the life of young Athenian aristocrats: athletes, horsemen, symposiasts and revellers.

The tondo of the present cup shows a komast, one of the revellers who spilled into the streets after a symposium. Wearing a fillet and a mantle, he dances to the right with one knee raised high, holding out a skyphos in one hand and a knotted walking stick in the other. A meander border with checker squares frames the scene. In the field is the inscription HO PAIS KALOS, “the boy is beautiful.” The exterior is plain black glaze, so all attention falls on the single figure.

Beazley Archive Pottery Database no. 9045792.

Width with handles 32 cm (12 5/8 inches).

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