Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

The wall of the low bowl rises from the flattened bottom to the rim in a swift curve. The thickened lip flares outward, its top evenly rounded. A series of fifteen lanceolate leaves encircle the bottom center: the concave impression of the design on the inside, the convex relief on the outside. The leaves are separated by broad grooves; in the interstices between the pointed tops prominent egg-shaped bosses have been placed, also surrounded by broad grooves. Interspersing these oval forms, small stylized palmettes, growing from widely opening calyxes, have been incised.

A similar shape in silver from Egypt, where this originally Achaemenid form was employed as well, suggests an origin in this part of the Eastern Mediterranean.