Kandila (Collared Jar with Conical Foot) (3000–2950 BCE): Art, History and Details

Kandila (Collared Jar with Conical Foot) (3000–2950 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Master A (Greek).

The work and its context

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

Kandila, the modern Greek word used by archaeologists for Early Cycladic stone jars like this one, also refers to a type of hanging oil lamp, similar in shape but made of metal and still used in some Greek Orthodox churches. Despite this name and the formal similarity, the primary function of the prehistoric kandila remains uncertain. The holes drilled through each of its four lugs may have been used for hanging or to secure a lid.

Object facts

• Title: Kandila (Collared Jar with Conical Foot)
• Date: 3000–2950 BCE
• Creator attribution: Master A (Greek)
• Culture: Greece, Cycladic
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 10.7 x 12.9 cm (4 3/16 x 5 1/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1991.166

A detail from the museum

"Cycladic" refers to a group of Aegean islands where vessels like this were made.

Collection credit

Seventy-fifth anniversary gift of the Merrin Family

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79.

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.