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Item An arretine chalice in Missouri(University of Missouri--Columbia. Museum of Art and Archaeology, 2022) Harder, Matthew C.Among the Roman vases in the University of Missouri's Museum of Art and Archaeology, an Arretine terra sigillata chalice is notable because of its figural scene in relief and the stamps of the potter/producer Marcus Perennius Bargathes (Fig. 1). Terra sigillata is a class of ancient pottery, a tableware that first appeared ca. 30 BCE. It is known for its red color, glossy appearance, and wide distribution across the Roman Empire. The Latin term sigilla means "little figures or images." The pseudo-Latin term terra sigillata is a modern technical designation first adopted in the late 19th century to indicate vessels decorated with relief, but it can also refer to plain vessels. Vessels with relief decoration were thrown on the wheel in pottery molds whose inner surfaces were impressed with stamps or punches. Thus, any vessel formed in the mold would have an exterior design in relief originating from the interior of the mold. After drying, the vessels shrank and could be removed from the mold and finished by attachment of a foot and handles, if needed. To produce the bright red, glossy appearance, the vases were first coated with a gloss and then fired in an oxidizing atmosphere between 1,050 and 1,200 degrees Celsius. The chalice is decorated with ten male figures in relief, standing or seated, and two potter's stamps. It stands to a height of ca. 18.8 cm with a diameter at the rim of 20.3 cm. According to the examination conducted at the Museum in July 1985, it has been mended from approximately ten fragments and is about 70-75 percent complete (Fig. 2). The foot, chips from the rim, and the lower sections of two figures (Figs. 3E, 3F, 9, and 10) were restored in tinted plaster; airbrushing with an acetone-soluble paint of a matching color covers the joins and missing areas.Item An agate bowl from Egypt(University of Missouri--Columbia. Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1969) Habachi, Labib; Biers, Jane C."Amongst the treasures which have come down to us from the ancient Mediterranean world are vessels carved from semiprecious stones. 1 Agate, onyx and sardonyx, all subvarieties of chalcedony, seem to have been the stones most commonly used for this purpose, and of these agate was perhaps the most usual. Perfume bottles, aryballoi, cups and bowls of various shapes were carved out of these hard, colorful materials. Such chalcedony vessels continued to be valued in the medieval and Renaissance periods, when they were often mounted in gold and silver, set with precious stones. One example, a perfect illustration of the esteem in which these ancient vases were held, is Abbot Suger's chalice now in the National Gallery, Washington.4 So popular were these vases that relatively few have survived in their original, unadorned state. One which is so preserved is an agate bowl in the Museum of Art and Archaeology of the University of Missouri. ... The Missouri bowl 5 is simple in shape. Its base is very slightly convex, making it stand unevenly; its sides flare outward to an incurved rim, the upper edge of which is flat. The surface of the vase is highly polished. In contrast to the simplicity of the shape, the colors of the agate are rich and varied. They range from milky-white to various shades of brown-reddish-brown through honey-colored to dark brown. The milky-white striations form irregular patterns or swirl around the vase, with small honey-colored patches interspersed on the dark brown background. Around the rim runs a continuous uneven hand of pale brown. The whole vase is highly translucent; with the light shining through in differing degrees of intensity and its brilliant polished surface, the general effect is one of great subtlety and beauty."--Pages 28-29.Item The Museum of Art and Archaeology : A Brief History(University of Missouri--Columbia. Museum of Art and Archaeology, 2019) Biers, Jane; Callaway, Cathy; Kidd, Benton; Wilcox, Jeffrey B.; Seelinger, RobertItem Ella Bache? Brummer : Donations for the Purpose of Teaching(University of Missouri--Columbia. Museum of Art and Archaeology, 2019) Marchington, Christina WytkoItem The Funerary Stele of Heliodora, Astrologer(University of Missouri--Columbia. Museum of Art and Archaeology, 2019) Bagnall, Roger S.; Callaway, Cathy; Jones, Alexander"We publish in this article a funerary stele that from its external and internal characteristics can be said with confidence to have been found at Terenouthis, in the Egyptian Delta. Although there are hundreds of such stelai published to date, and a considerable number of further examples known but not yet published, the stele in the University of Missouri Museum of Art and Archaeology belongs to a tiny group of such gravestones with unusual interest and, indeed, a unique description of the woman commemorated by it. The stele was acquired in 2011 from Charles Ede Ltd. in London; its previous owner, a private collector in the UK, had purchased it before 1970. It was originally sold by Maurice Nahman, the famous Cairo collector and dealer, who died in 1948."--First paragraph.
