Marble vase with high foot and lug handles

Technical analysis: Ultraviolet-induced visible light luminescence examination, X-ray radiography, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy


This marble vessel consists of a hemispherical body, a cylindrical tapering neck, and high pedestalled foot. The four, evenly spaced, vertical lugs located at the widest part of the body are perforated originally for its suspension. The vessel is intact except for minor chips at the rim and at all four lug handles, all of which have been mended. The interior is roughly finished and there are traces of a drill lathe used in its manufacture. The pedestal foot is hollowed out. The exterior surface is in excellent condition with some calcium carbonate deposits and traces of a pinkish-red pigment on the rim and between two of the lugs, which was identified as cinnabar.


The round bodied jar with four equidistant, vertical pierced lugs on the shoulder, a tall tapering collared neck and pedestal foot reminded modern Cycladic islanders of the glass oil lamp, or ‘kandila’, that they suspended to illuminate their churches and chapels, hence their common modern designation. Pat Getz-Gentle observes that examples that are generally large with a broad mouth, broad body with short vertical lugs that end abruptly and do not conform with the body’s line, and a short, broad, and hollowed out pedestalled foot are likely to be works of an artist whom she calls Kandila sculptor B. (1)


Sandy MacGillivray, Wendy Walker, Federico Carò


(1) See, Getz-Gentle, Pat. 1996. Stone Vessels of the Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age. pp. 26-35, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.