Detail of a Red-Figure Chous Attributed to the Oinokles Painter in the Getty Villa, June 2016

Title: Attic Red-Figure Oinochoe, Shape 3 (Chous)

Artist/Maker: Attributed to Oionokles Painter (Greek (Attic), active about 470 B.C.)

Culture: Greek (Attic)

Place: Athens, Greece (Place Created)

Date: about 470 B.C.

Medium Terracotta

Object Number: 86.AE.237

Dimensions: 23 × 18.6 cm (9 1/16 × 7 5/16 in.)

Alternate Titles: Wine Jug with a Drinker and His Slave (Display Title)

Boy Serving a Reveler (Published Title)

Previous Attribution: Oionokles Painter (Greek (Attic), active about 470 B.C.)

Department: Antiquities

Classification: Vessels

Object Type: Chous


With his head tilted back, his mouth open as if singing, and his arms thrown out in a dramatic gesture, the man on this vase shows the effects of a long night of drinking. Luckily, a servant-boy is there, anticipating his master's needs. The boy stands patiently carrying his master's belongings--a walking stick and a basket covered with a cloth--and holds out a vessel for him to urinate into. The jug he offers is a chous, a special form of oinochoe (wine-pitcher), and it is the very same shape as the vase on which this scene is depicted. Reinforcing the connection, another chous stands at the far right of the scene, garlanded with ivy. Shape and decoration are, therefore, neatly tied on this vase.

The chous was used during the Anthesteria, a three-day religious festival in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. A drinking contest was held on the second day of the festival, and these jugs were used to hold a standard amount of wine for the contest.

Text from: www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/12013/attributed-to-oionokles-painter-attic-red-figure-oinochoe-shape-3-chous-greek-attic-about-470-bc