Faience Applique with a Bust of Dionysos in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2009

Faience Applique with a Bust of Dionysos
Greek, 3rd-1st century BC

Accession # 2000.308

The use of faience, a material of Egyptian origin, for an object of Greek type and style exhibits an interesting combination of Greek and Egyptian workmanship that has been documented at Alexandria but is likely to have existed elsewhere as well. This piece, unlike the better known Ptolemaic faience oinochoai with relief decoration, does not appear to have belonged to a vessel and points to another use of faience appliques in the Hellenistic period.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.