Marco Bowl History

The San Marco bowl is a Byzantine vessel made of purple and red glass embellished with bright polychrome and enamel paint. It is seventeen centimeters high and deep, and 33 centimeters wide. The bowl became the property of the Treasury of San Marco after the Fourth Crusade from the Venetian booty of Constantinople and is one of the most prized glass objects of the Byzantine period (The MET). Although despite its significance to Byzantine fine art, the bowl’s origins, significance, and date of creation are unknown and still highly debated topics amongst art historians. However, many art historians believe that the bowl comes from the eleventh century in Constantinople. It is currently the only piece of painted Byzantine glass to survive intact
It was believed that the indecipherability of the Kufic script on the bowl served as a secret magical language used to communicate with the supernatural (Walker). This clandestine manner of communication was also used in Greek magical tradition which can support the legitimacy of the occult use of the bowl. Its elusive and cryptic character subscribes to its otherworldly nature. Similarly, Kufic inscriptions in Syrian brass caskets, magic-medicinal bows and Islamic seals which were transformed into apotropaic devices are also testaments to the probability of the bowl’s occult use. Moreover, Islamic groups, which employed Arabic as its primary language, were widely believed to posses occult knowledge. As such, by employing Kufic inscriptions, which are derived from Arabic script, the San Marco bowl’s divinatory power could have been
She expresses that there is a required knowledge of divinatory practices to fully comprehend the theme of the bowl. In her article, Meaningful Mingling: Classicizing Imagery and Islamicizing Script in a Byzantine Bowl, she states that middle Byzantine sources and manuscripts that circulated during the era referenced divination and a continuing occult practice in Byzantium. Therefore, these customs could have inspired the iconography present in the San Marco bowl. Moreover, she interprets the various vignettes of the bowl and identifies each mythological scene’s transcendental tenor. The seven large medallions depict gods, heroes, and pagan priests that portray various mantic associations (Walker). Also, the fourteen smaller medallions further supports the divination attributed to the bowl. Walker asserts that these smaller medallions could aid in controlling the beings summoned to inhabit the bowl. Lastly, she states the the number seven, which was the number of large medallions on the bowl, was linked to antique enchantments and could have strengthened the bowl’s talismanic power. Certainly, the bowl’s Byzantine roots and various motifs validates the occult meaning behind these mythological