CYPRIOT TREFOIL JUG
CYPRUS, CYPRO-ARCHAIC I, C. 750 - 600 B.C.
£30,000
African & Oceanic Art and Antiquities
Auction: 15 October 2019 at 16:00 BST
Description
terracotta and painted pigment, sitting on a ring base, the globular body leading to a short neck and trefoil mouth with a bifurcated handle, the central register with a depiction of a diety reaching towards a sacred tree with a bird below, the sides and neck with the conventional ornament of concentric circles and connecting bands in black and umber, the reverse with a depiction of a large lotus flower
Dimensions
37cm tall
Footnote
Provenance:
From a prominent British collection, acquired 1980s.
Note:
As an island sitting at the crossroads of eastern Mediterranean trade, ancient Cyprus was a melting pot of people and cultures. Here we see the Orientalising influence of Phoenicia and Assyria playing their part in this depiction of a deity. Indeed, the figure represented may refer to an Oriental, rather than domestic god. It has been postulated that images such as this relate to a specific deity who could commune with animals.
Colourful, inventive and full of playful allegory, this wonderful oenochoe demonstrates all that is best about Cypro-Geometric art. Even the form and decoration of the vessel itself is intended to evoke the shape of a fattened bird, with the trefoil mouth imitating the head and beak, while the concentric circles at either side form abstract wings.
For a related example see; The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number 74.51.509.