Urn

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Mid–1st to 2nd century

Roman

Lidded glass urns were among the largest blown-glass vessels produced by the Romans. Manufactured as storage jars, they were also used as burial containers for cremated human remains and have been unearthed primarily in the western part of the Roman Empire, including Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. While Roman glassmakers could produce a range of vibrant colors, the translucent, blue-green color of this urn was achieved naturally due to the presence of iron oxide in the raw materials used in its production.

Status: On View, Gallery 153
Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Culture: Ancient Roman
Title: Urn
Place: Roman Empire (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 50 CE–200 CE
Medium: Glass, blown
Dimensions: a (urn): 33.3 × 19 × 19 cm (13 1/8 × 7 1/5 × 7 1/5 in) b (lid): 30.4 × 10.1 × 10 cm (12 × 4 × 3.96 in)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Classical Art Society and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Alexander, William and Ann Roberts, and Philip Morris Companies, Inc., through the Classical Art Society in honor of Kurt Luckner
Reference Number: 1999.263a-b
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/152017/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report: 1999 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1999), pp. 10-11.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 39.
Sidney Goldstein, “Cat. 115 Urn: Curatorial Entry,” in Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016).

Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 156, April 20, 1994-February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, November 11, 2012-September 8, 2017 and March 21, 2023 - present.

Acquired in Italy by Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn (1749-1789), North Wales, around 1760 (this and the following according to correspondence from Ward and Company Works of Art, in curatorial object file); thence by descent; sold to K.J. Hewett (1919-1994), London, around 1984. Ward and Company Works of Art, New York, by 1999; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1999.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.