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A decorated bowl.

A simple bowl with a rounded bottom and no base or handles. The body of the bowl is decorated with long narrow petal shapes laid one after the other which curve up the contour of the bowl and cover most of the outside surface. There is a single raised line decoration around the upper edge. The top edge is perfectly flat, and the inside has no visible decoration. The surface is a dark brown, and the carving and decorations are very clean and consistent, despite some white surface texture in carved edges.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1995.1167
Title
Fluted Bowl
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
3rd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia
Period
Hellenistic period
Culture
Graeco-Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304506

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3700, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Roman Art
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
h. 5.7 cm x diam. 12.5 cm (2 1/4 x 4 15/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin
Other Elements: iron
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is dark red-black. Dendritic structures visible in the bright metal on the rosette on the base prove the bowl was cast. Although all the relief decorations could have been worked directly in the wax model, it is more likely that an indirect technique was used to form the fluted shapes, which were then refined as needed on the cast wax model. The thickness of the bowl varies from is 4.1 mm at the rim, 1.3 mm in the middle of a side flute, and 0.8 mm at the base right below the flutes. There is a depression (1 to 2 mm deep) in the center of the exterior of the base that may be from the turning of the original model or finishing the rim and the incised line near the rim after casting.


Tracy Richardson and Henry Lie (submitted 1999, updated 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Suleiminiyeh Rabi collection, Iran. Jonthan Kagan, New York, NY, (by 1995), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1995.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Jonathan H. Kagan
Accession Year
1995
Object Number
1995.1167
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The exterior of this cast, hemispherical bowl is decorated with elongated petals in relief, wider and rounded near the rim and tapering to the bottom, giving the exterior a fluted appearance similar to a column. Above the fluting, the rim is decorated with three plain bands; the central band is in shallow relief. The bottom of the bowl is decorated with a raised rosette made up of a circle surrounded by sixteen petals. The interior of the bowl is undecorated.

The rosette on the bottom compares very well to gold, silver, and bronze vessels found at Marlik, Iran (1). E. O. Negahban suggests that the rosette motif, which is common on the metal vessels of Marlik, may have been connected to solar symbolism (2).

NOTES:

1. See E. O. Negahban, Metal Vessels from Marlik, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 2.3 (Munich, 1983) 26-27, 57-58, 77, 79, 80-81, and 84-85; nos. 13, (a gold bowl), 20 (a silver beaker), 50 (a bronze beaker), 55 (bronze vessel fragments with rosettes and bands similar to those on the sides of Harvard’s bowl), and 59 (a bronze vessel).

2. Ibid., 91 and 95.

Lisa M. Anderson

Exhibition History

  • Hellenistic Art: Objects from an Expanded World, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/03/2006 - 07/29/2007
  • Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 3700 Roman, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu