Advanced Search 
Glazed bowl with snake-shaped head creatures
Byzantine (Eastern Mediterranean)
Byzantine
13th century
Object Place: Middle East, Byzantine
Medium/Technique
Ceramic; brown and green sgraffito ware/St. Symeon ware (?)
Dimensions
Overall: 9.5 x 20.6 cm (3 3/4 x 8 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Seth K. Sweetser Fund
Accession Number66.892
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsCeramics – Pottery – Earthenware
DescriptionThe bowl has a low ring base, hemispherical body and vertical rim, between which is a ridge, with a direct rim. The lower half of the exterior is left unglazed. The interior of this bowl is adorned by two four-legged creatures with long snake-like necks; most probably invented beasts displaying a strain of artistic invention. The bowl’s decoration was made using the sgraffito technique and painted with colors derived from copper (green) and iron (yellow-brown) oxides and covered with a lead glaze. Gray clay.
Provenance1966, sold by Ziya Sofu through Hermann Rosenberg, Ars Antiqua, A.G., Lucerne, to the MFA for $1000. (Accession Date: November 4, 1966)