Greece, Athens, ca. 530 to 520 BCE. An ancient Attic Greek black-figure Kassel cup painted with pairs of confronting swans on each side, each swan with a long curving neck and outstretched wings, with palmettes on either side of each handle, a band of laurel leaves around the body below, and rays above the foot. The Kassel cup, named after vase no. 1206 in the Staatliche Museen Kassel, Antikensammlung, Karlsruhe, Germany, is one of a small subgroup of wine drinking cups made in Athens soon after the middle of the 6th century BCE. These vases are characterized by their small size, delicate potting, and fine exterior decoration consisting of bands of small figures, ivy, laurel, and rays. Size: 5" L x 7.75" W x 3.75" H (12.7 cm x 19.7 cm x 9.5 cm)

The name Kassel comes from a piece that was found on Samos in 1898 and put on display in Kassel until its destruction in 1945. Kassel cups are a specific type of Attic Little-master cup that were created in Athens between 540 and 520 BCE. While they are similar to Band cups, their forms are generally smaller and shallower. This example features a pair of swans on each side. The swan played a complex role in Greek mythology - as the attribute of Aphrodite and Apollo, said to sing a song of unearthly beauty as it dies, and as the form assumed by Zeus to ravish Leda, mother of Helen of Troy. Swans also seem to have been a very popular aesthetic motif, used in a variety of tablewares from this period.

cf.: P. Heesen, Athenian Little Master Cups, (Basel, 2011), pls. 112-113, for cups by Tleson Painter with similar small swans.

Provenance: Formerly in the F.B. collection, Zurich, 1970's.

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#127979

Reassembled from several fragments. One segment on rim restored with partial in-painting of one swan.