Pomegranate Vase (1479–1425 BCE): Art, History and Details

Pomegranate Vase (1479–1425 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This small, round-bottomed flask takes the shape of a pomegranate. The serrated petals or calyxes that trim the top mimic the turned-back outer husk that is characteristic of this fruit. The flask's aperture is small. Not native to Egypt, the pomegranate (Punica granatum) was introduced from western Asia or Cyprus in the first half of Dynasty 18, probably between the reigns of Amenhotep I and Tuthmosis III. The fruit's novelty, as well as its shape, most likely accounts for its tremendous popularity as a deluxe vessel form at this time. Perhaps best known in Egypt and abroad in the materials of faience and glass, the type also occurs in metal, wood, and stone.

Object facts

• Title: Pomegranate Vase
• Date: 1479–1425 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Tuthmosis III (1479–1425 BCE) or later
• Type: Vessels
• Technique: blue vitreous faience
• Dimensions: Diameter: 5.4 cm (2 1/8 in.); Diameter of mouth: 1 cm (3/8 in.); Overall: 6.9 cm (2 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - New Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1914.612

A detail from the museum

The small size of the flask, together with its narrow opening, suggests that it originally contained a small amount of precious liquid, perhaps an ancient perfume or an offering of pomegranate wine.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition June 6-September 20, 1916. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

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.