There is a soft and gentle quality inherent in this facial expression. The down-turned eyes and thick eyelids may remind us of the pious saints depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings....
There is a soft and gentle quality inherent in this facial expression. The down-turned eyes and thick eyelids may remind us of the pious saints depicted in Italian Renaissance paintings. The mouth is completely relaxed and down-turned, as well. The entire composition of the face is graced with an angelic quality integrated with a compliant submissiveness. Perhaps the incised decorations on both cheeks reveal the ideology or god that this vessel has been created in reverence for. There are geometric designs encircling the opening, and the coiffure is shown impeccably straight and well groomed at the back of the head. The sun-drenched glaze still reveals its glimmering surface in certain areas. The handles on each side may have served as a means to pour hot liquids from the vessel during rituals. We are drawn again and again through this sensitive composition, compelled to pleasantly remember the golden moments of our own angelic nature.