Droop cup, Paris, Louvre CA 2512Underside of another cup, "Group of Rhodes", 540–520 BC
Droop cups (pronounced: Drope) are a type of Little-master cup in the pottery of ancient Greece, produced about 550 to 510 BC, probably mostly in Laconia. A few examples date to the fifth century BC. They are named after John Percival Droop, an English archaeologist, who first recognised the type.
Droop cups have black concave lips, more clearly distinguished from the lower vase body than on other types of Little-master cup. The feet are high; at the upper end they bear a ridge in natural base clay colour and a similar band just below, sometimes slashed. The edge of the base is painted black. The interior of the hollow foot has a broad black band of paint. On the base interior, the black slip is usually interrupted by a stripe deep below the rim; at times a circle at the bottom is also left free of black.
The cups of this type date to about 550 BC. The earliest specimens are completely black, a type that remains in production throughout later developments. Some early examples bear rows of bud-like decorations in the handle area. From c. 540 BC, decoration changes in so far that now the entire vase exterior below the lip and above the foot is decorated with bands, palmettes, leaves, dots, rays, or animal silhouettes. Figural decoration is rare.
Details of the post-540 decorative style are so similar to cups from Laconia that a connection must be assumed. It is likely that both regions used the same East Greek examples as inspiration. Later, decorative schemes were directly adopted from Sparta. The type goes mostly out of use around 510 BC, although black-slipped cups continue to be made for longer.
Bibliography
John Percival Droop: The dates of the vases called 'Cyrenaic', in: Journal of Hellenic Studies 30, 1910, p.1–34.
John Percival Droop: Droop Cups and the Dating of Laconian Pottery, in: Journal of Hellenic Studies 52, 1932, p.303–304.
Percy N. Ure: Droop Cups, in: Journal of Hellenic Studies 52, 1932, p.55–71.
Percy N. Ure: Droop Cups, Black and Figured, in: Studies presented to David M. Robinson II, 1953, p.45–
Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red Ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas of the Roman Empire; and more recently, as a description of a contemporary studio pottery technique supposedly inspired by ancient pottery. Usually roughly translated as 'sealed earth', the meaning of 'terra sigillata' is 'clay bearing little images', not 'clay with a sealed (impervious) surface'. The archaeological term is applied, however, to plain-surfaced pots as well as those decorated with figures in relief, because it does not refer to the decoration but to the makers stamp impressed in the bottom of the vessel.
In the pottery of ancient Greece, a kylix is the most common type of cup in the period, usually associated with the drinking of wine. The cup often consists of a rounded base and a thin stem under a basin. The cup is accompanied by two handles on opposite sides.
Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it, it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society. The shards of pots discarded or buried in the 1st millennium BC are still the best guide available to understand the customary life and mind of the ancient Greeks. There were several vessels produced locally for everyday and kitchen use, yet finer pottery from regions such as Attica was imported by other civilizations throughout the Mediterranean, such as the Etruscans in Italy. There were a multitude of specific regional varieties, such as the South Italian ancient Greek pottery.
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic, is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are specimens dating as late as the 2nd century BCE. Stylistically it can be distinguished from the preceding orientalizing period and the subsequent red-figure pottery style.
A krater or crater was a large two-handled type of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water.
An oenochoe, also spelled oinochoe, is a wine jug and a key form of ancient Greek pottery.
The hydria is a form of Greek pottery from between the late Geometric period and the Hellenistic period. The etymology of the word hydria was first noted when it was stamped on a hydria itself, its direct translation meaning 'jug'.
A lekythos is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip; the oinochoe is more like a modern jug. In the "shoulder" and "cylindrical" types which became the most common, especially the latter, the sides of the body are usually vertical by the shoulder, and there is then a sharp change of direction as the neck curves in; the base and lip are normally prominent and flared. However, there are a number of varieties, and the word seems to have been used even more widely in ancient times than by modern archeologists. They are normally in pottery, but there are also carved stone examples.
A kantharos or cantharus is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, probably originates in metalwork. In its iconic "Type A" form, it is characterized by its deep bowl, tall pedestal foot, and pair of high-swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot. The Greek words kotylos and kotyle are other ancient names for this same shape.
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White-ground technique is a style of white ancient Greek pottery and the painting in which figures appear on a white background. It developed in the region of Attica, dated to about 500 BC. It was especially associated with vases made for ritual and funerary use, if only because the painted surface was more fragile than in the other main techniques of black-figure and red-figure vase painting. Nevertheless, a wide range of subjects are depicted.
Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, c. 900–700 BC. Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of the Aegean. The Greek Dark Ages lasted from c. 1100 to 750 BC and include two periods, the Protogeometric period and the Geometric period, in reference to the characteristic pottery style. The vases had various uses or purposes within Greek society, including, but not limited to, funerary vases and symposium vases.
The pottery of ancient Greece has a long history and the form of Greek vase shapes has had a continuous evolution from Minoan pottery down to the Hellenistic period. As Gisela Richter puts it, the forms of these vases find their "happiest expression" in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, yet it has been possible to date vases thanks to the variation in a form’s shape over time, a fact particularly useful when dating unpainted or plain black-gloss ware.
Bucchero is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin poculum, a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish búcaro, or the Portuguese púcaro.
John Percival Droop was a British classical archaeologist of Dutch descent.
Little-master cups are a type of Attic black-figure cups, produced around the middle and third quarter of the sixth century BC. Their name is based on their fine small-format decoration. Little-master cups are later in origin than Siana cups, but both types were produced over a considerable period of time. The Little masters painted only the small upper frieze above the carination of the cup, at times also the lip or handle areas. It is probably that only few of the painters of Siana cups also painted Little-master cups. One of the first artists to introduce the Little-master cup in Athens was Kleitias. The change in decoration went along with a lengthening of the cup foot. The dedicated painters of Little-master cups rarely painted larger formas, whereas painters primarily specialised in large vases are known to also have painted Little-master cups. Stylistic comparison between larger and smaller formats of the period remains difficult.
Eye-cup is the term describing a specific cup type in ancient Greek pottery, distinguished by pairs of eyes painted on the external surface.
Elbows Out is the name given to an Attic black-figure vase painter, active in Athens around 550/540 to 520 BC. His conventional name is derived from the strongly exaggerated gestures and odd anatomy of his dancing figures. Together with the Affecter, he is considered one of the Mannerists of the black-figure style. He painted e.g. lip cups and neck amphorae, the latter in a special shape with a heavy ovoid body. His amphorae are decorated with several friezes. His band cups resemble works by Tleson and Lydos, but are more conventional in terms of the animal motifs. He also painted a lydion, a vase shape very rarely produced by Attic potters. He is often seen as connected with the Affecter, but also with the Amasis Painter. The link with the latter should not be overestimated.
Laconian vase painting is a regional style of Greek vase painting, produced in Laconia, the region of Sparta, primarily in the 6th century BC.
The Boxing Siana Cup, is an Archaic vase that is part of the University Museums at the University of Mississippi. The vase is from the region of Attica and is dated to be around 560 BC – 550 BC. The design style of the vase is Attic black-figure and features a scene on the front and back of the cup and one on the interior. The artist of the vase is considered to be the Sandal Painter.
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