Archéologie & Antiquiities

Gilded Coffin Lid for the Priest Nedjemankh (detail). Late Ptolemaic Period (150-50 B.C.). Cartonnage, gold, silver, resin, glass, wood. Purchase, 2017 Benefit Fund; Lila Acheson Wallace Gift; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; Leona Sobel Education and The Camille M. Lownds Funds; and 2016 Benefit Fund, 2017 (2017.255b). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that it has acquired an ancient... [Lire la suite]

Roman Cast Glass Bowl, 1st century B.C.E.-1st century C.E. Cast glass. © Miho Museum. Shallow basin cast from blue translucent glass. The rim has a rounded band while the walls of the basin are relatively curved and the outer edge is diagonal and the base has a slight hollow. A wide horizontal groove is cut into the outer side of the rim, while the inner side of the rim is circled by one and the inner side of the basin's torso circled by two thin horizontal cut grooves. Both inner and outer surfaces are smoothly finished.

Roman Cut Glass Beaker, 1st-2nd century B.C.E., from the Eastern Mediterranean. Cut glass, H. 13.1 cm. © Miho Museum. The cut-glass technique using almost colorless translucent cast glass has already appeared in Assyria by the 8th century BC, but it did not become widespread until the Roman period. This cup was blown from yellowish green translucent glass which was then formed in a mold and later cut with decorations. The long narrow hexagonal cuts are ranged in three and a half vertical registers, and with each neighboring row... [Lire la suite]

Roman Cut Glass Cup, 1st-2nd century C.E., from the eastern Mediterranean or Italy. Cut glass © Miho Museum. Translucent glass was blown and then formed in a mold. This shape was then decorated with cut work. The body is divided into three registers and two rows of rounded hexagonal cuts were then arranged in each register. The vessel walls were thinned on the area around the mouth and between the registers and a decorative cord cut into these areas. A small foot has been attached to the base. Unlike cat. No. 171, when light is... [Lire la suite]

Roman Glass Bottle with Cut Crystal Decoration, ca. 1st century C.E., from the Eastern Mediterranean or Italy. Cut glass © Miho Museum.  This bottle looks like it is a column of crystal. Blown and molded from colorless translucent glass, the bottle was shaped with cut work. Just beneath the mouth area a sharp angled cord was cut around the neck, and then after a brief hiatus slightly below, the cut surfaces begin. There are 12 cut lines that run from the right shoulder downward toward the lower left, and then another 12 cuts... [Lire la suite]

Sassanian Silver Gilt Plate with a Royal Hunt, 7th century C.E. Silver gilt, D. 20 cm. © Miho Museum This extraordinary example of silver craftsmanship depicts the theme of the Sasanian royal hunt in a distinctively decorative style, almost totally filling the circular field with pictorial elements. In this highly conservative genre, the central image is always that of a ruler engaged in hunting on foot or, more commonly, on horseback. Earlier royal hunting plates tend to be simple compositions featuring the king and one or more... [Lire la suite]

Sassanian Silver Gilt Plate with a Royal Prince Holding a Mare, 4th-5th century B.C.E. Silver gilt, D. 30 cm. © Miho Museum In the center of this large, imposing silver plate, there is a large figure of a man holding a mare, which nearly fills the plate. The crown on his head is ornamented with fluttering ribbons and a crescent. The man has wavy hair. The patterns on this plate are typical of Sasanian silver design, including the fluttering ribbons, the bead ornaments for the ear, the beard tied at the end, the rounded shoulder... [Lire la suite]

Sassanian Silver Gilt Plate Depicting a King Wrestling a Leopard, 5th-6th century C.E. Silver gilt, D. 21 cm. © Miho Museum

Sassanian Silver Gilt Plate Depicting a Royal Lion Hunt, 5th century C.E. Silver gilt, D. 23 cm. © Miho Museum

A Sassanian Silver Plate with Herakles and the Erymenthian Boar, 5th-7th century C.E. Silver partially gilt, Diam. 19.9 cm.; W. 500.53 grams. © The George Ortiz Collection, Geneva. Made from a disc of silver sheet hammered [1] into shape, leaving a thickened rim. The emplacement for the relief parts are outlined, grooved out, the background roughened. The relief elements are solid and prepared by hammering; once inserted the joins are annealed. The whole is touched up in the cold; the flowers punched in, the details of the feline's... [Lire la suite]