Glass oinochoe

Greek

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 162

Translucent blue, with same color handle; trails and blobs in opaque yellow and pale turquoise; yellow appliqué at base of handle.

Trefoil rim with slightly irregular shape to spout and tooling marks on upper surface around mouth and on underside of rim; cylindrical neck, slanting slightly forward; top of shoulder almost horizontal, then sloping and rounded; tall, ovoid body, tapering down to broad base pad with thick, rounded edge; hollow bottom; large rod handle applied to top edge of body, drawn up in a curving loop, turned in, and pressed on to back of rim.

Turquoise trail around lip of rim, with one area of poorly applied yellow on one side; unmarvered fine yellow trail wound in a spiral 5½ times around neck; row of large blobs on shoulder, five in yellow, then five in turquoise; yellow trail around top edge of body in a spiral but coalescing in one area to form a broad single band; yellow and turquoise trail down sides of body, tooled into a festoon pattern with twelve upward tooling strokes (another upward and a single downward stroke are hidden behind and below handle); another yellow trail around bottom of body; another unmarvered yellow trail around edge of base; behind and below handle an additional patch of blue glass appears to have been applied and then decorated with rows of blobs; two in yellow to either side of base of handle, then four rows of three blobs (from top to bottom, a row of turquoise blobs, then yellow, then turquoise, then yellow to either side of a turquoise blob); a single blue blob on lower body over festoon; finally, a blob of yellow applied to base of handle and impressed with a female (Gorgon?) mask with long streaming hair and a ribbon (snakes?) under her chin.

Broken and repaired, with minor losses to the trail on rim, some areas of fill, and some retouching; many large and deep pits; milky iridescent weathering; thick red encrustation inside mouth.

The size of this core-formed glass jug is exceptional. The vast majority of surviving examples are relatively small by comparison. This piece can rightly be regarded as a tour-de-force, made as a special commission for someone who could afford to have only the best and biggest.

Glass oinochoe, Glass, Greek

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.