Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)
Translucent cobalt blue, with handles and base-knob in same color; trails in opaque yellow and turquoise blue.
Broad inward-sloping rim-disk; cylindrical neck; broad, gently sloping shoulder; ovoid body, tapering downwards to pointed bottom; applied small circular base-knob with rounded edge and flat bottom; two strap handles applied to shoulder, curved up and inwards onto neck, then drawn down neck and trailed off behind base of handle.
One yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied to shoulder and wound in a spiral around top of body, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern on upper body, where a turquoise blue trail is added, mingling with the yellow; below this, a yellow and a turquoise trail, each wound horizontally once around body, the yellow running over the lower tips of the zigzag pattern on one side.
Complete, except for part of one handle, and some internal cracks in upper body; slight dulling and pitting.
Glass vessels such as these first appeared in the Greek world late in the sixth century B.C. They originally contained perfumes or scented oils used in funerary rites, after which the bottles were left in the grave.
Broad inward-sloping rim-disk; cylindrical neck; broad, gently sloping shoulder; ovoid body, tapering downwards to pointed bottom; applied small circular base-knob with rounded edge and flat bottom; two strap handles applied to shoulder, curved up and inwards onto neck, then drawn down neck and trailed off behind base of handle.
One yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied to shoulder and wound in a spiral around top of body, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern on upper body, where a turquoise blue trail is added, mingling with the yellow; below this, a yellow and a turquoise trail, each wound horizontally once around body, the yellow running over the lower tips of the zigzag pattern on one side.
Complete, except for part of one handle, and some internal cracks in upper body; slight dulling and pitting.
Glass vessels such as these first appeared in the Greek world late in the sixth century B.C. They originally contained perfumes or scented oils used in funerary rites, after which the bottles were left in the grave.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)
- Period: Classical
- Date: late 6th–5th century BCE
- Culture: Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
- Medium: Glass; core-formed, Group I
- Dimensions: H. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm); diameter of mouth 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
- Object Number: 17.194.797
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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Princeton Group
ca. 540–530 BCE
Greek
last quarter of the 6th century BCE
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
late 6th–5th century BCE
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
late 6th–5th century BCE
Greek, Eastern Mediterranean
late 6th–5th century BCE
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