Bauer Woman's Head Jug

Mug for Kait, 2022

Magaret Bauer

Terracotta

Throughout patriarchal societies, women have been marginalized participants in intellectual social spaces. Women were only welcome in the Greek symposium as trained entertainers (hetairai) or as portraits on the ceramics. The original RISD object label comments on the irony that women were only welcome in the symposium as trained entertainers (hetairai) or as portraits on the ceramics. This object references women’s exclusion from the symposium. To respond to that social context, I want to sculpt a similar vessel, one with a portrait of my friend. The portrait of a woman on the original Greek wine jug would be entertainment for symposium guests, similar to today’s novelty mugs. This context exposes how women were confined to decorative roles within the symposium, and barred from the structured discourse that male guests engaged in during these parties. In our society, women have to curate their appearance to have their ideas taken seriously in social and intellectual spaces. What would this piece look like if a woman made it, centering women’s agency? I recreated the Greek wine jug, replacing the non-descript woman’s face with a portrait that represents a specific woman, my friend Kaitlyn. Instead of a wine jug it is a coffee mug, because we go to coffee shops together for serious conversations and for gossip.

The norms for sculpted portraits in Ancient Attica are different from the types of portraits I see in contemporary art and creative culture. Archaic sculptures, such as korai sculptures of women, used symbols (instead of realistic facial features) to denote the identity of the sculpture subject. Modern norms skew towards realistic, naturalistic representation, or portraits that emphasize personality traits or caricature prominent facial features. This sculpture is not hyper-realistic and specific, but Kaitlyn sent photos and live-modeled while I sculpted her portrait. Kaitlyn’s involvement in the process, as the subject of the piece, is what makes my ‘jug in the shape of a woman’s head’ artistically different from the original piece.

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Wine jug (Oinochoe) in the shape of a woman's head, ca. 490 BCE

Greek, Attica

Terracotta

RISD Museum, Gift of Mrs. Gustave Radeke 22.213

This terracotta wine jug, shaped like the head of a Greek woman, was made by an unknown artist in Attica. The head is painted in the red-figure style and dates to around 490 BCE, known as the Late Archaic period of Greek art. The woman’s face and detailing on her headscarf are painted in black slip over red terracotta clay. The wine jug is 24 cm (9 7/16 in) from the base to the top of the handle. It was gifted to the RISD Museum in 1922 as a gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke, and is now displayed in the Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries.

This type of jug is significant to Greek social life. It would likely have been used during a drinking party, or symposium (literally “drinking together.”) This type of wine jug, an oinochoe, has a tall curved handle and a pouring spout. It was likely used for serving wine into individual drinking cups, but it is smaller than the containers typically used for mixing or storing wine. The woman on this wine jug is smiling, typical of figures from the Archaic period. Her hair is covered by a scarf with geometric patterns. Her features are semi-realistic, making the sculpture a general depiction of a woman, not a portrait of a specific individual.

The symposium drinking party was a male homosocial event, hosted in a private space within the home. Women were only welcome in the symposium as hired companions (hetairai) who worked as entertainers and servers for all-male guests. These women courtesans were educated, even compared to high-class Greek women, and the entertainment they provided included sex work. It was customary for hired courtesans to pour wine at the drinking party, so a woman entertainer would have served wine from this woman-shaped wine jug.