East Greek Faience Alabastron

Rows of incised plant and animal scenes decorate this faience alabastron, a vessel for holding scented oil. Herdsmen with ibexes and bulls fill the middle rows, while lotus petals adorn the top and bottom of the vase. The small lug handles take the form of sleeping gazelles. Most alabastra have a rounded bottom and need to be placed in a stand or suspended by strings that run through the holes in their handles. The foot allowing this alabastron to stand on its own is unusual.

The name given to this shape of vessel, alabastron, originates from objects of the same shape made first in Egypt using precious alabaster. This Greek alabastron imitates the type of Egyptian relief-decorated vessel not only in shape, but also in its material and motifs. Faience, with its glasslike glazed surface, had a long history in Egyptian art. The herding and lotus motifs, as well as the stacked rows of decoration, also copy those found on Egyptian alabastra. Here, however, rather than modeling the scene in low relief, the unknown artist has used the much simpler method of forming the decoration with incised lines.