Vases Red-figure Plate: Woman Playing Kottabos
Plate: Woman Playing Kottabos
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Plate: Woman Playing Kottabos

Red-figure The Bryn Mawr Painter · 480 BCE
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.
Technique
Period
Classical period, Early
Date
480 BCE
Culture
Greek
Attribution
Attributed
Findspot
Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Vari (Attica)
Museum
Harvard Art Museums
Accession Number
1960.350
Image Source
harvard
Images courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0)