The vessel with relief from the collection of the archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in Jerusalem

The paper examines a vessel from the Jerusalem collection of the Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) assembled in the second half of the 19th century. The study was conducted using two of his photographs kept in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum (earlier kept in the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople). The object was also examined de visu. The archival photographs provided grounds to ascribe the vessel to the group of Late Hellenistic red slip pottery with applique reliefs, presumably, of Pergamene origin, though there were some doubts about it. The examination of the vessel in the museum building on the Mount of Olives confirmed these doubts. Analogies to the depicted scenes were not identified in the collected data on the Pergamene applique reliefs, images on Late Hellenistic glazed pots, or the Pergamene items of the Early Roman period. Distinctive traits of the iconography show that its elements were compiled from larger originals. The fig leaf covering the nakedness of a young man with a dog leaves no doubt that this vessel is a much later imitation rather than an Ancient Greek item. It is possible that this ‘antique’ was bought by Fr. Antonin from Moses Shapiro, a well-known Jerusalem antiquities dealer.