Vase à pied

Footed vase

Many different types of footed containers including collared jars, spherical pyxides and massive lamp-shaped vases were executed in marble in the first part of the Early Cycladic II. Furthermore, a few rare examples of double cups or vases exist as well as a piece made of four vases and a single well-preserved sauceboat. Only two kinds of footed vessels were made in great number: the simple vase and the cup.

The marble foot occuring first in the Early Cycladic I changed from a cone to a chalice shape. This temporary transformation was due to the last kandiles sculptors. Then the footed marble containers seem to have disappeared altogether until the beginning of the Early Cycladic II, circa 2700 B.C. If the foot was kept in clay, it is probably because the potter’s gesture was easier than the marble sculptor’s: it is much easier to fabricate a foot separately, then fix it to the paunch of a vase, than to extricate it from marble in one piece, with the rest of the vessel.

The footed cup sometimes has a single massive horizontal tenon, looking like a large rim. This model is one of thirty well-preserved pieces. A great many more were produced, judging by isolated vase and feet fragments that were found by archaeologists in Keros (but still unpublished). Very few known examples bear traces of paint inside suggesting that in general these polyvalent vessels were meant to hold water or food. If the chalice-shaped foot was obviously the done thing, the stem’s height could vary. The outline of the entire stem or of part of it and the stand itself formed a continuous curve. The Barbier-Mueller example differs from the other models because of its foot and its angular outline. Measuring 8 centimeters high, this vase is also one of the largest preserved. The height of bowls with tenon varies from 2.4 centimeters (one can here talk of genuine miniatures) to 8.5 centimeters. The bowl’s diameter can measure up to 13.7 centimeters [1].

Publ.: Zimmermann 1993, n°11.

[1] On footed vases, see Getz-Gentle 1996, p. 160-162.