Cypriot Bowl, 725 to 675 BCE

This silver-gilt bowl was made in Cyprus around 700 BCE. It fascinates me because it combines elements from two very different artistic traditions, the Assyrian and the Egyptian.

The central figure could have stepped off one of the walls of Nineveh.

This guy, too.

But this image wandered in from tomb painting in the Valley of the Kings.

And this also looks very Egyptian to me.

Did some Cypriot prince want vessels he could use to serve either Egyptian or Assyria ambassadors? Or did he just like both styles? In the Met.