Fragment of a Red-Figure Bell-Krater or Calyx-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Female Head (Aglauros)

c. 460–450 BC

Fragment of a Red-Figure Bell-Krater or Calyx-Krater (Mixing Vessel): Female Head (Aglauros), c. 460–450 BC. Attributed to Nausicaa Painter (also known as Polygnotos III; Greek, Attic, active c. 460–440 BC). Ceramic; overall: 6.8 x 7.5 cm (2 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Frances W. Ingalls 1992.369 Broken from the upper wall of a large mixing vessel, this fragment shows the head of a woman wearing an earring and an elaborate ribbon in her hair. A faint inscription identifies her as Aglauros, a daughter of Kekrops, the mythical first king of Athens. Although worshipped in a shrine near the Acropolis, Aglauros appears quite rarely in Athenian art, usually with her sisters at the birth of Erichthonios, a future king. An inscription identifies this woman as Aglauros, an Athenian princess.