Anahita Vessel (300–500 CE): Art, History and Details

Anahita Vessel (300–500 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

These dancers may be sacred images of the Zoroastrian religion of the Sasanians or they may be bacchantes, followers of a cult of the Roman wine god, Bacchus, who was popular in the Near East.

Object facts

• Title: Anahita Vessel
• Date: 300–500 CE
• Culture: Iran, Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: silver, cast, raised, repoussé, chased, and gilted
• Dimensions: Overall: 18.5 x 11.5 cm (7 5/16 x 4 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Near Eastern Art
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1962.294

Collection credit

Gift of Katharine Holden Thayer

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 50, no. 10 (December 1963): 263–294.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. “Sasanian Art in Cleveland.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 51, no. 4, 1964, pp. 66–92.
• Harper, Prudence Oliver. "The Heavenly Twins." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 23, no. 5 (January 1965): 186-196.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.