Ancient Greece, Athens, ca. 540 BCE. A striking lip cup - a type of Greek Attic Little Master Cup - finely decorated via the black-figure technique with a rooster on the tondo, surrounded by four concentric linear bands from which alternating red and black rays emanate - these rays nicely mirroring the pattern of the bird's plumage - and finally another set of four linear bands as a border. The interior walls are then black with a red rim, and the lip of the band cup is red and slightly concave. The shoulder and a ring between the body and foot are red as is the rim of the base of the foot. A wonderful example of this form. Size: 11.25" W handlespan x 4.125" H (28.6 cm x 10.5 cm)

Circa mid-6th century BCE Roosters were very popular in Greek visual culture. According to mythology, a rooster was standing beside Leto, who was pregnant by Zeus, at the moment she gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. By extension, the rooster is dedicated to solar gods and lunar goddesses. In addition, the rooster is an attribute of Apollo. The ancients would also ritually sacrifice a rooster to Asclepios, son of Apollo and god of medicine, because the rooster heralded the soul of the dead and guided it to the Otherworld. Asclepios by extension is also the god who, using his healing powers, brought the deceased back to life on earth.

Published: P. Hessen, Athenian Little-Master Cups, Amsterdam, 2011, p. 46, note 294; p. 68, note 421; and p. 84, note 496.

Provenance: ex-private Manhattan, New York, USA collection, ex-Galleria Serodine, Ascona, 1984 (Schweizerische Kunst-und antiquitatemesse, Basel, 9-17, April 1988, no. 36); acquired by owner of Manhattan collection from above in 1988.

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#129522

Body and handles repaired from multiple pieces. Foot reattached. Visible join between foot and body with losses visible at center of tondo. Nicks to peripheries of foot and rim.