Jug with Woman Holding Oinochoe on Shoulder

Cypriot potters are known for their creative vessel forms. Their products were sometimes complex, with multiple vessels combined into one object or a single vessel with multiple spouts, as is the case for this jug. The overall form consists of a ring-mouthed jug with a simple handle and ring foot produced in Cypriot Bichrome Red Ware (black and white paint in simple bands on a dark red ceramic). On the shoulder opposite the handle, the potter attached a flat female figure—the head was mold made, with delicately modeled features and headdress, but the body was shaped by hand and is relatively undetailed. The figure holds a spouted jug in her proper right hand, and the bottom of the small jug opens into the body of the larger vessel, so that when poured, a stream of liquid would emerge from the small jug first, before it reached the mouth of the large jug.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Luigi Palma di Cesnola, New York, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1874 and 1876, by purchase; Anderson Galleries, New York, Sale 2253, "Cypriote and Classical Antiquities, Duplicates of the Cesnola and Other Collections, Part I," 31 March 1928, lot 509. Mrs. Samuel C. Lamport, New York, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1952, by gift of the estate of Mrs. Samuel C. Lamport.