Getty Museum

Cup with Cranes

Date

25 B.C.–A.D. 50

Medium

Silver

Culture

Roman

Department

Vessels

Institution

Getty Museum

Four cranes shown in their natural marshy environment decorate this Roman silver cup. The birds groom and hunt among the vegetation, mainly seeking snakes of varying sizes. The cranes, pairs of which flank a central plant, are depicted in a variety of poses: one battles a snake entwined with its legs; a second preens the feathers of its back; a third captures a snake hiding beneath a flowering plant, and the fourth preens its wing feathers. The bowl-like form of this vessel was a popular shape for drinking cups in the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. Ancient marks on the cup’s surface indicate the former presence of two handles and a foot that are now missing; the current foot is a modern reconstruction. The nature scene on this cup may depict a landscape beside the Nile River. Such imagery originated in Alexandria, Egypt, in the Hellenistic period (323–31 B.C.), but continued to be used on fine Roman silver in the first century A.D. The reason for this popularity may be linked to a growing interest in representing landscape and the natural world in art at this time. The image of the crane fighting a snake may also have had an apotropaic symbolism with the power to ward off evil.

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