Berlin Foundry Cup

The Berlin Foundry Cup (German: Erzgießerei-Schale) is a red-figure kylix (drinking cup) from the early 5th century BC. It is the name vase of the Attic vase painter known conventionally as the Foundry Painter. Its most striking feature is the exterior depiction of activities in an Athenian bronze workshop or foundry. It is an important source on ancient Greek metal-working technology.

The interior image (or tondo) of the cup has a direct connection with metalwork. It depicts Hephaistos, the god of crafts, including smiths, handing the goddess Thetis armour and weaponry for her son Achilles, who is fighting in the Trojan War. Achilles is going to use them to avenge his slain friend Patroclus. The scene is described in Homer's Iliad. Like other scenes connected with the Trojan War, it is a common motif on Greek vases.

In contrast, the exterior image is unusual. It depicts a bronze workshop. The production of a variety of bronze statues is shown at different stages. At the centre of one side (side A), the statue of a warrior, larger than life-sized, stands within a wooden scaffolding. His body his protected by a circular shield held in his left hand; his right hand is about to thrust a raised spear. Unusually, the cheek-guards of the helmet are folded upwards; the painter probably used this to depict the statue's face more clearly. The statue appears to be in the final stages of production, since two workers, one of them marked as a smith by his characteristic leather cap, are smoothing or polishing its surface. They are flanked on each side by a man leaning on a crook and watching the workmen. They appear to neither represent additional workmen, nor the owners of the workshop, but rather random passers-by on the way to or from the palaistra. They were probably going to (or just did) engage in athletic activity, as indicated by the sports-related items (an oil flask and a strigil) suspended behind them.

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