Head Flask

The head of a long-haired youth, perhaps the god Apollo, forms the body of this cobalt-blue glass vase. Vessels in the shape of human heads had a long history in both Greek and Roman art. Deities and mythological beings were the most popular subjects. 

The strongly classicizing features of the face, as well as the form of the handle, indicate that this flask was made in the 300s or 400s A.D. Both the vessel's size and its fine state of preservation are unusual. Few large, mold-blown head vessels have survived from antiquity. The late date is also unusual because most mold-blown vessels tended to have much simpler forms after the first century A.D.