Drinking cup (skyphos) depicting young athlete taking a music lesson

Unknown (Greek)

Item type:

vessel

Date of creation:

ca. 530-520 BCE

Height:

10.5 cm  (4 1/8 in.)

Width:

22.8 cm  (9 in.)

Depth:

16.3 cm  (6 7/16 in.)

Technique / Medium:

ceramic, black figure

Place of creation:

Athínai (Ellás)

Description

Commentary from museum website:
Black glaze on rim, interior and foot. White on lyre.
A: a boy with a strigil and aryballos faces a bearded man who is seated on a stool and holds a lyre on his knees. A youth, identifiable as an athlete from his strigil and aryballos, stands before a seated man who holds a lyre, a harplike instrument; so evidently he is a music teacher. This scene shows how closely related athletic and musical instruction were.

B: three men in conversation. In center, a young man in tunic and over-cloak (himation). On his left and right are young men holding rounded objects (balls? oil flasks?)

Condition: Broken at rims and at nearby or right-hand handle.

Iconclass

48C7211
musician training pupils, music-lesson

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lyre [3501]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

5973