Bowl

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Cyprus was an important center for trade and commerce throughout antiquity. By the Late Bronze Age (about 1600–1050BC), the island was producing large quantities of copper, which lured adventurous seafaring merchants to its shores in the hope of exchanging their cargo for the prized metal. Imported goods and migrant artists profoundly influenced Cypriot potters and painters, who began to create and decorate their wares differently. New products served the Cypriots’ domestic and ritual needs or made their way on outbound ships to distant lands, where they in turn inspired local artists. This hemispherical bowl has a single handle in the shape of a wishbone. Sometimes called a “milk bowl,” it is coated with white slip and painted with dark brown patterns. Cypriot vases decorated in this technique were widely exported around the Mediterranean.

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