Alabastron (Container for Scented Oil)
6th-4th century BCE
- Medium
- Glass, core-formed technique
- Classification
- Vessel
- Dimensions
- 11.4 × 3.2 × 3.2 cm (4 1/2 × 1 1/4 × 1 1/4 in.)
- Culture
- Mediterranean Region
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
- Credit line
- Gift of Theodore W. and Frances S. Robinson
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Initially affordable only among the wealthy, glass was used in ancient Rome to create tableware and containers for oils and perfume. In the ancient Mediterranean world, scented oils, usually olive oil based, were used more frequently than alcohol-based perfumes. This vessel is called an alabastron because objects of this shape were originally made of alabaster. To create it, an oblong, heat-resistant form was dipped into molten glass and then removed, leaving behind the core-formed glass object. The patterned exterior was created by trailing different colored threads of glass over the body of the vessel and then combing the threads with a pointed tool.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
