Around 510-500 BC, an Athenian vase painter placed a small scene at the center of a wine cup: a dog scratching its ear with its hind leg. No gods, no heroes, no battle lines. Just an itch.
It's an Attic red-figure stemless cup, currently housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and displayed in Gallery 16 on the Ground Floor. Made in Athens, it was likely intended for the world of the symposium: a broad, shallow wine cup held by reclining drinkers and repeatedly raised throughout the evening.
The painter was an anonymous artist scholars call the Euergides Painter. His name is a modern convention derived from Euergides, the potter who crafted the cups he decorated. Active around 515-500 BC, the artist worked during the years when the red-figure technique was beginning to replace black-figure vase painting.
Let's look at the dog: its slender body, pointed snout, long tail, elegant legs, and ears resemble the hunting dogs ancient writers associated with Laconia or Sparta. Writing in the 4th century BC, Xenophon describes the ideal hunting dog in terms of speed, proportion, strength, a keen nose, and a long tail; I believe these qualities perfectly match the one on this cup.
What makes this choice particularly striking is its modesty. During the same period, painters like Euphronios and Euthymides were experimenting with the new red-figure style using bold anatomy, movement, perspective, and ambitious scenes. Euthymides even boasted on one vase that his work was 'much better than Euphronios's.' Here, the Euergides Painter reduces the drama to a hound and an itch.