Coupe à pied

Footed cup

Of all the Early Cycladic II footed vessels, the cup was the most common and lasting example. While the Early Cycladic II simple bowl forming the majority of the Cycladic vessels was much more common than its heightened variation, the footed cup was executed in a greater number than its footless version, as the one held by the famous sitting cupbearer (probably a male figure but not in an evident manner). This Early Cycladic II model, whose bowl rests on a chalice-shaped foot, is an especially well-executed composition: the bowl’s flat stand echoes that of the foot, while the ascendant flare of the container completes that of the foot, which goes in the opposite direction. With its relatively large bowl compared to its rather low foot, the Barbier-Mueller cup, twice as wide as high, is a particularly elegant illustration of that type, of which we know more than seventy examples to this day. Similarly to footed vases, few footed cups show traces of pigments, which implies they were mainly used to hold water. In the cemetery at Chalandriani in Syros, a late tomb, richly endowed, held four footed cups amongst numerous other objects. We also know of terra cotta footed cups. May it be by their shape or dimensions, they seldom distinguish themselves from their marble version, which was much more expensive and infinitely more fashionable. This phenomenon leads us to think that there was a very intricate relationship between Cycladic marble sculptors and potters, and that such vessels, though they were found on several islands, were essentially executed by a limited number of related craftsmen, living on one of them – likely Naxos [1].

Published in: Zimmermann 1993, pl. 4 and fig. 12, p. 138.

[1] On the footed cup, see Getz-Gentle 1996, p. 164-167.