Terracotta dinos (deep round-bottomed bowl) 530 BC

Editor: This piece is a terracotta dinos, which I understand to be a deep round-bottomed bowl, made around 530 BC. It is currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I find the frenetic energy of the figures painted on its surface really striking! What is your perspective when looking at this artwork? Curator: It does leap out at you, doesn’t it? It's tempting to imagine it filled to the brim with wine at some raucous symposium! Look closely, can you make out who the figures might be? Those aren't just any dancers—they’re wearing animal skins. Think Dionysus, ecstatic rituals... What does that context suggest about its purpose to you? Editor: So, these are figures in the throes of some kind of ecstatic experience, and the bowl itself might have been used in related rituals? That’s fascinating; it transforms my initial reading of just frenetic energy into something much deeper and ritualistic! Curator: Exactly! Pottery, you know, back then wasn't just functional. It told stories, whispered secrets. The choice of terracotta – earth, quite literally – grounds the divine madness within our very human experience. I'm suddenly wondering about the fingerprints of the potter! Editor: Thinking about it that way, it is almost like a collaboration across millennia, between us, the anonymous artist and the ancient users of this dinos. Thanks, I'll never look at ancient pottery the same way! Curator: And that, my dear Editor, is the real magic, isn’t it?