This marble vase with doves was created in an unknown workshop in the second half of the 19th century. The vessel was not used for flowers or jewellery storage: it was a luxury item and decorated the interior by itself. The master sculpted the vase from marble with a chisel, a hammer and a file. He carefully chiselled out the feather pattern and delicate ornament around the edges of the bowl.

At the end, he polished his work with emery, pumice and special pastes. In the process of polishing, the artist managed to create different textures: he made the bowl smooth and shiny, while the birds more matt.

The subject of this vase repeated a famous antique mosaic. It was created by the Greek mosaic artist Sosus in the 2nd century BC. The work of the master was described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History: ‘A bowl with doves sitting on its edge, drinking water from it and perking up’. Pliny said that the artist had even conveyed shadows on the water surface. In the history of art this subject, described by the ancient Roman author, was called the Doves of Pliny. The floor mosaic by Sosus was lost, but the subject became popular, and many masters repeated it in different versions.

Subsequently, doves on the bowl were continuously repeated in decorative panels, frescoes and decorations. The vase from the Yaroslavl Museum of Fine Arts confirms that the popularity of the subject has been preserved for millennia.