Amphoriskos (Container for Oil)

1st century

Roman, probably Syria

Shortly after glassblowing was invented in the Eastern Mediterranean in the first century BCE, enterprising
glassmakers created a shaping technique known as moldblowing, in which they inflated a bubble of molten glass within a mold. This process enabled rapid production and promoted the development of new vessel shapes and sizes.

Status: On View, Gallery 153
Department: Arts of the Ancient Mediterranean and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Roman
Title: Amphoriskos (Container for Oil)
Place: Syria (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1 CE–100 CE
Medium: Glass, mold-blown
Dimensions: 10.5 × 4.5 × 4.5 cm (4 1/8 × 1 3/4 × 1 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Theodore W. and Frances S. Robinson
Reference Number: 1949.1173
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Wanda Odell, “Ancient Glass: The Mr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Robinson Collection, Gallery 5A, The Art Institute of Chicago,” 1940, unpublished catalogue in curatorial object file, Art Institute of Chicago.

Theodore W. and Frances S. Robinson, Chicago, by 1931; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.

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