kylix

On a low foot, this early Christian kylix, a shallow drinking cup, is painted in the ‘occhioni’ style, its wide-eyed faces gazing out with a calm, archaic intensity. Beneath the handles, leaves unfurl in careful brushstrokes, a modest botanical flourish against the vessel’s simple geometry. Around the rim, four pairs of holes betray an ancient repair: someone, long ago, took the trouble to mend what might otherwise have been discarded. Such interventions speak to the value placed on everyday objects in late antiquity, when even a humble cup could be worth preserving. Early Christian pottery from this period often blended late Roman traditions with emerging symbolic motifs, though here the decoration remains firmly in the classical vernacular. The kylix stands as a quiet witness to continuity, a thing broken, fixed, and used again, its painted eyes still watching across the centuries.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.