The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Black-Figure Kantharos (Drinking Cup): Lizards Flanking Tree (A); Ducks (B)

c. 500 BCE

Greek, Boiotian

ceramic
Diameter: 10.7 cm (4 3/16 in.); Overall: 11.2 cm (4 7/16 in.); Diameter of foot: 6.1 cm (2 3/8 in.)
Gift of JoAnn Harris 1985.175
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

Kantharos, the Greek word for this type of cup, also refers to a dung beetle.

Description

Known as a kantharos and often associated with the wine god Dionysos and the hero Herakles, this type of two-handled drinking cup was particularly popular in Boiotia, a region of central Greece northwest of Athens. Also typical of Boiotia is simple black-figure silhouette decoration, without incision. Here and elsewhere, though, Boiotian vase-painters used red paint for additional detail; note the alternating tree leaves, lizard eyes and spots (on the right), and duck eyes.
  • ?-1985
    JoAnn Harris, Bath, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1985-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 1002948 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1985." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (1986) p. 62, no. 14 www.jstor.org
    Neils, Jenifer, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, OH]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. p. 25, l. 59.8-9
  • {{cite web|title=Black-Figure Kantharos (Drinking Cup): Lizards Flanking Tree (A); Ducks (B)|url=false|author=|year=c. 500 BCE|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1985.175