Art Institute of Chicago

Amphoriskos (Container for Oil)

Roman, probably Syria

Date

1st century

Medium

Glass, mold-blown

Culture

Syria

Department

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Shortly after glassblowing was invented in the Eastern Mediterranean in the first century BCE, enterprising glassmakers created a shaping technique known as moldblowing, in which they inflated a bubble of molten glass within a mold. This process enabled rapid production and promoted the development of new vessel shapes and sizes.

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