Terracotta Megarian bowl

Unknown

1st century BCE · Terracotta · Greek and Roman Art

Grooved ridges above a zone of heart-ivy with berries framed by bands; below, alternating lotus and acanthus leaves with tendrils, interspersed with seven-petal rosettes. Red-glazed bowls such as this were made in Pergamon between the 2nd–1st centuries B.C. In addition to their distinctive glaze, many of these bowls were characterized by their taller, more cylindical profiles, and the placement of the decorative motifs on the lower half of the bowl's exterior surface. Although worn, the free-style relief decoration is carefully rendered yet spontaneous, suggesting a date around the beginning of the 1st century B.C.; by contrast towards the end of the century, the designs on these bowls assume a stiff and more predictable character.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1st century BCE

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek, Pergamene

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917