Plate: Woman Playing Kottabos
480 BCE
Artists
Description
On this plate interior, a woman reclines on a couch into a plush and decorated pillow. She wears a long tunic with fine creases done in diluted glaze with a mantle thrown over her legs. Her hair is pulled back into a dotted headdress (sakkos). She holds two wine cups, one rendered in silhouette held close to her body, the other in her extended hand as she plays the game kottabos. In a symposium (drinking party), this game involved the tossing of the wine dregs left over at the bottom of a cup at a target, sometimes as one calls out the name of his lover. In the background behind her feet, an empty pipe case hangs on the wall, suggesting that the pipe player is somewhere unseen in this scene, accompanying the party with music.
Dimensions
2.5 cm h x 21.8 cm diam. (1 x 8 9/16 in.)
Provenance
David M. Robinson, Baltimore, MD, (by 1937-1958), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1960.
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