Vessels: The Object as Container

Description

What is a vessel? As objects made for human interaction and handling, both containing and bounded by space, vessels can take many forms and be constructed of a wide variety of materials. However, they are all unified in signifying a potential for practical functioning, whether or not a particular object is in fact used in this way in its particular context. In this second volume in the Visual Conversations in Art & Archaeology series, and the first in the Center for Global Ancient Art sub-series, four essays by leading scholars tackle the category of vessels in ancient Greece, late antique Rome, pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and ancient China. By considering the material properties of the object as container, the interactions between user and vessel, and the power of the vessel as both a conceptual category and material metaphor, they argue that many vessels - and assemblages of vessels - were in their own time sites of considerable intellectual power, smart and sophisticated commentaries on the very categories that they embody. In collecting these individual case studies together, the volume offers an art historical and cross-cultural study of vessels from ancient societies, drawing illuminating comparisons and interpretations between traditions. In keeping with the aims of the series, it serves as a model for a new kind of comparative art history, one which emphasizes material culture and is attentive to questions of evidence and method, yet remains historically grounded and contextually sensitive. Cover Vessels: The Object as Container Copyright Dedication PREFACE CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Introduction 1: Ancient Greek Vessels between Sea, Earth, and Clouds REFERENCES 2: A Roman Vessel for Cosmetics: Form, Decoration, and Subjectivity in the Muse Casket INTRODUCTION THE MUSE CASKET: A LATE ROMAN BOX FOR COSMETICS CONCLUSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS REFERENCES 3: When Pots Had Legs: Body Metaphors on Maya Vessels THE FOUR-LEGGED EARTH AND THE BASAL-FLANGE WOMAN ENTERING THE WATER BODIES OF JADE WHOSE BODIES? REFERENCES 4: Practice and Discourse: Ritual Vessels in a Fourth-Century BCE Chinese Tomb THE TOMB THE CASE OF THE FIFTEEN TRIPODS: DECONSTRUCTING THE EXCAVATION REPORT SACRIFICIAL VESSELS Vessels dedicated to ancestors Vessels used in a grave sacrifice Offerings from the son UTENSILS AND FURNITURE SPIRIT VESSELS PRACTICE AND DISCOURSE REFERENCES INDEX