Minoan Pottery

  1. Greek
  2. Minoan Pottery
  3. Lily Vase


Lily Vase

Minoan

 replica: from World Treasures, California

date of the original: c. 1600-1580 BC (Late Minoan I) 

provenance of the original: Palace of Knossos, Crete; now in the Herakleion Museum, Crete

description: Brown glazed vessel with cream-white glaze in lily motif. Pottery replica; pottery original. Height 20 cm (tapered, straight at the bottom increasing in circumference to the top), diameter 14 cm.

Slightly earlier than the Octopus Stirrup Jar, this vase indicates the development of a preoccupation with natural subjects and a naturalistic advance in representational art. Like many subjects of the Late Minoan period the lilies perhaps took their inspiration from wall paintings--a mural from Amnissos has this same lily motif which transfers well to the surface of pottery. The small clump of leaves at the bottom where the vase is at its narrowest expands upward into blossoms where the vase reaches it widest circumference.