Art Institute of Chicago

Bowl

Cypriot

Date

Late Bronze Age, about 1450-1200 BCE

Medium

terracotta

Culture

Cyprus

Department

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.