1media/BZ.1947.12.D2010.a.jpg2022-06-15T09:00:52-07:00Bowl with Hunting Scene (DO BZ.1947.12)10plain2023-01-14T14:11:29-08:0041.0085549543568, 28.977746578479536By Nina Masin-Moyer ‘22
This silver bowl shows two figures, a man on foot and a woman on horseback, hunting a leopard and a lion. The woman may represent a huntress from classical antiquity, such as an Amazon (see the Roundel with Amazons on Horseback) or Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. Many classical deities took on Christian allegorical significance in the Middle Ages: for instance, medieval Christians associated Diana with chastity. The theme of the hunt remained important from antiquity into the Middle Ages (and beyond) because hunting remained a popular pastime for the elite across millennia.
Silver plates and bowls were common vehicles of pictorial display in late antiquity and were probably used for display purposes, so as to not hide the image they bore.
Toynbee, J.M.C. and Painter, K.S., “II. Silver Picture Plates of Late Antiquity: A.D. 300-700”, Archaeologia, or, Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity, London: Society of Antiquaries of London 1770, 78, 1986.
