Shallow Bowl
6th-4th century BCE
Description
Hammered from a single sheet of metal, this silver phiale (libation bowl) has a shallow central navel or omphalos and is decorated with a pattern of radiating petals or leaves and, inserted between them, 14 lobes rendered in repoussé. The tips of the petals split to form an arch above each lobe, and a small upside-down teardrop appears where they split, as if growing from a calyx of leaves. There is a centering mark on the undersaide of the omphalos, and there are fine horizontal striations especially on the exterior of the rim. Black and brown patina with patches of green; crack in one lobe.
Dimensions
4.7 × 16.9 cm, 44.67 g (1 7/8 × 6 5/8 in.) Thickness of wall at rim: 0.1 cm (1/16 in.) Weight: 280 grams
Provenance
Frances L. Hofer, Cambridge, MA, (by 1979), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1979.
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