Cup with Lotus Decoration
Description
Object Label: This little cup has been shaped and decorated to resemble a blue lotus (water lily). This was the flower the Egyptians loved above all others. They treasured it for its fragrance and especially for the way in which it seemed to follow the sun, opening at daybreak and closing at nightfall. The blue lotus became a potent symbol of the hope for eternal life. It is likely, therefore, that this small vessel was not made for use or as a toy but rather was placed in a temple as a gift to a god. Caption: Cup with Lotus Decoration, ca. 1938–1539 B.C.E.. Faience, 1 11/16 × Diam. 1 11/16 in. (4.3 × 4.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 35.1275.
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A small, ancient Egyptian blue glazed cup with geometric patterns.
The artifact is a small cup displaying a blue-green faience glaze, adorned with geometric motifs in darker hues. The design consists of triangle and dot patterns, typical of decorative elements in Egyptian art. The cup exhibits a simple form with a wide opening and a slightly raised base, indicative of functional ware used in everyday life or possibly in ritual contexts.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 35.1275 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3365 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.