Face Urn
Unknown Artist
25–50 CE
Medium
reddish ware with gray burnished slip
Dimensions
19 × 20 cm · diam. 19.5 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Greek and Roman Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1992.125
About this artwork
This wheel-thrown vase is decorated with humanlike facial features and a phallus applied to the face’s cheek. Wide arching eyebrows meet at the short bridge of the face’s puggy nose, which sits over lips pursed around its protruding tongue. Finger marks can be seen around the eyes and eyebrows where clay was added onto the surface of the vessel to form the facial features.