抖阴旅行射

Catalogue Entry听

This vase is one of听a collection of Greek vases听held by the 抖阴旅行射 Art Museum.

Gift to 抖阴旅行射 Classics Department
Transferred to 抖阴旅行射 Museum of Natural History
听(2006)

Height: 5.7 cm
Diameter (max.): 8.9听cm
Date: c. 150 B.C.E.
Origin: Peloponnese (Greece)

Description: Small round mould-made bowl with floral and figural designs on exterior. Olive green glaze.

Additional photos of this vessel听show details of its base, interior, and decoration.

Discussion

This vessel is an example of a so-called Megarian bowl or, more correctly, mould-made relief bowl, a pottery type that appeared in the later 3rd century B.C.E. Unlike earlier, wheelmade wares听with surfaces decorated only with slip, paint, and glaze, these bowls were made in stamp-decorated moulds that added decoration in relief. This method of manufacture gave the vessels an embossed effect that may have been intended to imitate metalwork. The vessels were thrown听on a potter's wheel听while inside the mould in order to produce a smooth and even inner surface while allowing the outside to pick up the pattern of the mould clearly. The moulds themselves were made on the wheel and decorated on the interior with stamps (1).听

These bowls functioned as drinking cups and replaced the earlier kantharos shape, a 4th century B.C.E. example of which is included in the 抖阴旅行射 Art Museum's collection (2). The relief designs were best seen from below, which would be seen when the user drank from the cup.听

This particular vessel features a simple design of repeated motifs arranged in rows. The top row consists of small rosettes alternating with dolphins. Below this are representations of dancing Eros figures; 听and is the Greek equivalent of the Roman Cupid. A floral design covers the bottom of the bowl, with longer acanthus leaves extending up and between the Eros figures above (3). Bowls like this, which feature nearly equal amounts of floral and figural decoration, are classified by Susan Rotroff as "Floral Bowls with Figures" (4). This type was manufactured from the late 3rd to the 2nd century B.C.E. and was contemporary with both vegetal and figural types, including vessels that depict mythological scenes (5). In the 2nd century B.C.E., floral and figural bowls were largely replaced by Long-Petal Bowls, a more stylized type with repeated petal-like motifs covering most of the surface (6).听

Comparanda

• Fernand Courby,听Les vases grecs 脿 relief (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1922):听388.听
• Homer A. Thompson, "Two Centuries of Hellenistic Pottery,"听Hesperia Vol. 3, No. 4听(1934): 311-476.
• Sylvia Benton, "Excavations in Ithaca, III; The Cave at Polis, II," The Annual of hte British School at Athens听Vol. 31 (1938/1939): 33, pl. 16.听
• P. V. C. Baur, "Megarian Bowls in the Rebecca Darlington Stoddard Collection of Greek and Italian Vases in Yale University," American Journal of Archaeology听Vol. 45, No. 2 (Apr.-Jun., 1941): 229-248, pls. XI-XIII.听
• Erika Kunze-G枚tte,听Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Deutschland 26, Stuttgart i听(Munich: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1965): p. 39, 5-6.
• 础顿别濒迟听. 18 (1963): Chronika, Pl, 212 a.听
• 础顿别濒迟听. 20 (1965): Chronika, Pl. 480 d.

Footnotes

1. On dating and origin of Hellenistic relief bowls, see Susan I. 搁辞迟谤辞蹿蹿,听Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls, The Athenian Agora Vol. XXII听(Princeton, NJ: The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1982): 6-13; on technique of manufacture, see 搁辞迟谤辞蹿蹿,听Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls: 4-5听. On Hellenistic relief bowls in general, see also J.J. Pollitt,听Art in the Hellenistic Age听(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986): 256; John G. Pedley听Greek Art and Archaeology听(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993); William R. Biers,听The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction听(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980): 314-5; J.W. Hayes "Fine Wares in the Hellenistic World" in听eds. Tom Rasmussen and Nigel Spivey,听Looking at Greek Vases听(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991): 183-202.
2. 搁辞迟谤辞蹿蹿,听Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls:1; Hayes, "Fine Wares in the Hellenistic World": 189.
3. Chara Tzavella-Evjen,听Greek and Roman Vases and Statuettes from the University of Colorado Collection听(Athens: Archaiologikon Deltion, 1973):听192-197.
4. 搁辞迟谤辞蹿蹿,听Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls:听17.
5. On early types of decoration, see 搁辞迟谤辞蹿蹿,听Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls: 15-34.
6. On Long-Petal bowls, see 搁辞迟谤辞蹿蹿,听Hellenistic Pottery: Athenian and Imported Moldmade Bowls: 34-7.

Reference

• Chara Tzavella-Evjen,听Greek and Roman Vases and Statuettes from the University of Colorado Collection听(Athens: Archaiologikon Deltion, 1973): 192-197.听