Terracotta plate

Epiktetos

ca. 520–510 BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

Youth riding rooster Plates were favored by some of the major vase-painters, both black-figure and red-figure, during the last decades of the sixth century B.C. The tondo presented the same challenge as the interior of a cup. This young man astride a rooster touches the bird's neck with his right hand and, curiously, rests his toes on the framing circle. The meaning is not evident, but the reference undoubtedly has to do with the rooster as a love gift.

Artist

Epiktetos

Date

ca. 520–510 BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek, Attic

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Purchase, The Bothmer Purchase Fund, and Schimmel Foundation Inc. and Christos G. Bastis Gifts, 1981