Bottle
5th century
Medium
Glass, blown technique
Dimensions
7.1 × 6.4 × 6.4 cm (2 3/4 × 2 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
bottle
Department
Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
67516
Art Historical Context
This delicate 5th-century Byzantine bottle, standing just 7.1 cm tall, exemplifies the artistry of the early Byzantine Empire, a period bridging late Roman traditions and the flourishing Christian East Roman world. Crafted using the innovative blown glass technique—perfected centuries earlier in the Levant—this small vessel (7.1 × 6.4 × 6.4 cm) showcases era's mastery of transparency and form, allowing artisans to create lightweight, symmetrical objects with remarkable efficiency. Glassblowing revolutionized production in the Roman and Byzantine periods, enabling mass creation of functional y...
About the Artist
Byzantine
"Byzantine" is the collective attribution given to anonymous artists working within the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, whose creations spanned from the 4th to the 15th centuries, primarily in Constantinople and its cultural sphere. These masters produced a vast body of art that defined an era, with museums like the Walters Art Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago cataloging numerous works un...