Bowl with Winged Female Figure

Silver vessels like this one were prized luxuries in the Hellenistic world. The central medallion, rendered in high relief and accented with gold leaf, shows a winged female figure. She wears a fawn-skin and wreath and holds a thyrsus, all symbols linked to Dionysos, god of wine. Yet her wings suggest Eros, god of love. This blending of attributes resists easy identification. Hellenistic artists often played with mixed iconographies to evoke complex emotions and invite allegorical interpretation.

The bowl is believed to come from a hoard of nineteen silver objects reportedly found in 1909 in Kerch, a city on the Black Sea and site of ancient Panticapaeum, a wealthy Greek colony. While the precise findspot is unknown, the bowl’s style, material, and early documentation support its origin in this richly Hellenized region.