Stemmed Cup

Unknown

about 1300 B.C.

Terracotta

J. Paul Getty Museum

A stemmed terracotta cup decorated with painted motifs of shells and horizontal bands. The cup has two handles and a flared base. A band of stylized nautilus shells decorates each side of this Minoan kylix, a stemmed drinking cup. During the Late Bronze Age, Minoan artistic styles exerted a notable influence on the arts of the Greek mainland. Beginning around 1500 B.C., Mycenaean potters decorated their wares with naturalistic renderings of marine life, a style adopted from Minoan pottery workshops on Crete. Over the centuries, these images became more stylized, as can be seen on this cup. Both the shape of the vessel and its marine motif are typical of the pottery production at the Palace of Minos at Knossos on Crete during the period from about 1350 to 1300