Although much of the Mycenaean pictorial pottery found on Cyprus was imported from mainland Greece, this chalice was probably produced on the island itself. The decoration is characteristic of pottery made in the Argolid, a region of the Peloponnese, but the shape is attested only in vessels from Cyprus, Syria, and the Levant. Additional vases discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean have been attributed to the same artist, whose workshop was probably located in Cyprus.
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Title:Terracotta chalice with bull's heads
Period:Late Helladic IIB
Date:ca. 1300-1200 BCE
Culture:Mycenaean
Medium:terracotta
Dimensions:9 3/4 in. (24.7 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:The Bothmer Purchase Fund, 2023
Accession Number:2023.639
Until 1952, collection of Mary Maitland Sikes, London and Portscatho, Cornwall, UK; 1952-1971, collection of Richard Somerville Sikes, London and Truro, Cornwall, UK; from 1971 and until 1988, by descent to his wife, Presiley June Sikes (née Inchbald), and his daughter, Mrs. Michael Smart (née Sarah Sikes); 1950-1988, on loan to the British Museum (GR 1977,0417.1); July 11, 1988, acquired by Dr. Marc Fehlmann, purchased through Sotheby’s London (lot 143); 1988-2023, collection of Dr. Marc Fehlmann, Basel, Switzerland; 1994-1998 (L.993) and 2006-2010 (L.1262), on loan to the Archäologische Sammlung, Universität Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland; acquired in 2023, purchased through Christie’s New York (lot 8).
Stubbings, Frank H. 1951. Mycenaean Pottery from the Levant. p. 87, n. 2, Cambridge, England: University Press, Cambridge.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1957. "A Mycenaean Chalice and a Vase Painter." The Annual of the British School at Athens, 52: pp. 38–41, pl. 8a.
Benson, Jack Leonard. 1961. "Observations on Mycenaean Vase-Painter." American Journal of Archaeology, 65(4): no. 1, p. 340, fig. 9, pl. 102.
Catling, Hector William and Anne Millett. 1965. "A Study in the Composition Patterns of Mycenaean Pictorial Pottery from Cyprus." The Annual of the British School at Athens, 60: p. 213, n. 13.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1965. Nouveaux documents pour l'etude du Bronze Recent a Chypre: Recueil critique et commmente. pl. XIX, 5, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Buchholz, Hans-Gunter and Vassos Karageorghis. 1971. Altägäis und Altkypros. no. 1635, pp. 154, 444, Tübingen: E. Wasmuth.
Buchholz, Hans-Gunter and Prof. Vassos Karageorghis. 1973. Prehistoric Greece and Cyprus: An Archaeological Handbook. no. 1635, pp. 153, 444, London: Phaidon Press.
Vermeule, Emily T. and Vassos Karageorghis. 1982. Mycenaean Pictorial Vase Painting. no. V.97, pp. 53, 176, 205, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sotheby's, London. 1988. Middle Eastern, Egyptian, Ancient Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities also Ancient Glass. July 11, 1988. lot 143.
Gilbert J. 1988. "Saleroom." The Times.12 July 1988 p. 5.
Isler, Hans Peter. 1995. "Jahresbericht (April 1994 bis März 1995)." Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich, 21: p. 6.
Isler, Hans Peter. 2007. "Jahresbericht (April 2006 bis Februar 2007)." Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich, 33: p. 6.
Fehlmann, Marc. 2014. "Looting and Losing the Archaeological Heritage of Cyprus." Islands of the Eastern Mediterranean: A History of Cross-Cultural Encounters, Ozlem Caykent and Luca Zavagno, eds. pp. 155–56, fig. 8.5, London and New York: Bloomsbury.
Christie's, New York. 2023. Antiquities. October 17, 2023. lot 8.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
