Blue-painted Storage Jar
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
Pottery Decoration
After a pottery vessel had dried to a leathery consistency, it was ready to be decorated and fired.
The simplest technique was to apply a layer of clay, paint, and water—called slip—on the pot’s drab exterior. Other methods included incising designs with pointed objects, polishing the surface with a cloth, or using a stone to burnish it, creating an attractive sheen.
Painted decorations appear on pottery throughout the Eighteenth Dynasty. Early designs included thin lines and long pendant triangles. Around the time of Thutmose III, artists invented a pastel blue paint that eventually dominated pottery decoration. A rare type of pot made exclusively for tombs was painted to reproduce the appearance of stones such as breccia.
After decorating the vessel, the potter placed it in a kiln for firing. Potters wrapped cords around large unfired vessels to prevent them from collapsing. These ropes burned away during firing, but traces of them remain on the sides of some pots.
After a pottery vessel had dried to a leathery consistency, it was ready to be decorated and fired.
The simplest technique was to apply a layer of clay, paint, and water—called slip—on the pot’s drab exterior. Other methods included incising designs with pointed objects, polishing the surface with a cloth, or using a stone to burnish it, creating an attractive sheen.
Painted decorations appear on pottery throughout the Eighteenth Dynasty. Early designs included thin lines and long pendant triangles. Around the time of Thutmose III, artists invented a pastel blue paint that eventually dominated pottery decoration. A rare type of pot made exclusively for tombs was painted to reproduce the appearance of stones such as breccia.
After decorating the vessel, the potter placed it in a kiln for firing. Potters wrapped cords around large unfired vessels to prevent them from collapsing. These ropes burned away during firing, but traces of them remain on the sides of some pots.
MEDIUM
Clay, pigment
DATES
ca. 1332â1292 B.C.E.
DYNASTY
late Dynasty 18
PERIOD
New Kingdom
DIMENSIONS
11 13/16 x Diam. 6 3/8 in. (30 x 16.2 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
16.580.129
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father Charles Edwin Wilbour
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Storage jar; ovoid, with pointed bottom, wide mouth and slightly flaring, plain wide rim, sharply offset from shoulder. Red clay core, covered with pinkish (formerly white?) slip. Ornamented at shoulder with painted band of rectangular motives, blue with red line running through center and outlined in black, held between red, blue and black rings at neck and a single black ring below shoulder. Ornamented on body with a very wide band of pointed leaves and buds in blue, red and black held between two narrow bands of blue, striped in the center with red and bordered with black.
Condition: Deep flaw in pottery in one side and small chips at rim. Paint worn and faded. Slip worn off at bottom.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Blue-painted Storage Jar, ca. 1332â1292 B.C.E. Clay, pigment, 11 13/16 x Diam. 6 3/8 in. (30 x 16.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.580.129. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 16.580.129_PS22.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 16.580.129_PS22.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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