Ancient Egyptian Blue-Painted Vase

Ancient Egyptian Blue-Painted Vase
Amarna Period, circa 1348-1320 BCE

Egyptian pottery seldom survives at this scale with its painted decoration intact. This monumental vessel dates to circa 1348-1320 BCE, placing it within the Amarna Period, the brief and fascinating chapter of the New Kingdom presided over by the pharaoh Akhenaten. It belongs to the tradition known as blue-painted ware, the most prestigious ceramic production of the era, prized for its vivid pigments and its lively naturalism.

The pigment concentrates on the neck and shoulder, leaving the swelling body of the jar in the warm buff of the fired clay. A band of stylized persea leaves in blue and red encircles the neck, framed above and below by horizontal registers and a row of fine dark triangles. On the shoulder, an ankh in blue occupies the center, flanked by uas sceptres bound with lotus blossoms and papyrus umbels, their forms drawn with the fluid, curving line that distinguishes Amarna draftsmanship from the rigid conventions that preceded it. Together these motifs signify life, dominion and regeneration.

Beyond its beauty, the history of this vase is equally compelling. Akhenaten redirected Egyptian worship toward the sun-disc of the Aten and moved his court to a purpose-built capital at Akhetaten, present-day Amarna. The artistic revolution that accompanied this shift favored naturalism and movement over the static formality of earlier dynasties. Within a generation of his death, the capital stood empty, the cult of the Aten was suppressed, and much of its art was dismantled or effaced, which accounts for the scarcity of surviving works. A closely related jar resides in the Brooklyn Museum, though this vessel measures approximately 43 percent larger, and a considerably smaller comparable example is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

On stand: 24 1/2" high x 13" diameter

Provenance:
Private collection
Private collection, London
M.S. Rau, New Orleans