Marble vase with high foot and lug handles

Technical analysis: Ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence examination


This large vessel, carved from white marble, was examined under natural and UV light. It is essentially intact. A loss near the top of one of the lug handles has been restored with a painted fill.


The piece is remarkably well preserved, allowing for a full appreciation of its form. This type of vessel, also known as a kandila, features a tall conical collar that tapers towards the top, a hemispherical body with four evenly spaced crescent-shaped vertical suspension lugs, and a high conical foot that repeats the taper of the collar. The workmanship is very fine, with the top of the collar ground to a thickness of only about four millimeters. Although the walls become progressively thicker below the rim, the marble is translucent to well below the shoulder. The exterior was more carefully finished than the interior, and was not hollowed out to its full capacity. The pedestal likewise is only partially hollowed out. The lugs are unusually long and delicate, and perforated with neat holes bored from both sides, cutting slightly into the outline of the body of the vase.


Kandilai typically held liquids, such as oil or wine. Cords strung through the pierced lugs around the body could be used to hang the vase or attach a lid. However, this kandila is an unusually large example of the type, and its weight, combined with the addition of liquid contents would have made it difficult for one person to carry any distance. Even so, the vessel may have served a function in funerary rituals.


Alexis Belis and J-F de Lapérouse