Description

Xenon pottery swan kylix (wine cup),    On the tondo is an elegant swan depicted in profile
with a long beak and feathery wings encircled by a ring-like border followed by a laurel leaf
garland, with matching garlands on the exterior walls – all delineated in characteristic Xenon
peachy-pink over a glossy black glaze.

Magna Graecia, South Italian Colonies, Apulia,  c.  340 – 325 BC.

Width:  20 cm including handle

Condition:  Excellent and complete

The swan played a complex role in Greek mythology – the attribute of Aphrodite and Apollo, said to sing a song of unearthly beauty as it dies, as well as the form assumed by Zeus to ravish Leda, mother of Helen of Troy. The latter, based on the writings of Ovid and Fulgentius, was well known in the European Middle Ages, and inspired artists, including Michelangelo, during the Italian Renaissance. However, the ancient Greek artisan who made this piece was probably depicting the swan as a general symbol of passion and beauty rather than a direct reference to the Zeus and Leda story. That subject gained its popularity later, because in Christian Europe it was more acceptable to depict women being intimate with a swan than with a man, while in ancient Greece there were no such restrictions.