A vase ( /ˈvɑːz/, /ˈveɪs/, or /ˈveɪz/) is an open container, often used to hold cut flowers. It can be made from a number of materials including ceramics and glass. The vase is often decorated and thus used to extend the beauty of its contents.
Vases are defined as having a certain anatomy. Lowest is the foot, a distinguishable base to the piece. The design of the base may be bulbous, flat, carinate, or another shape. Next, the body, which forms the main and often largest portion of the piece. Resting atop the body is the shoulder, where the body curves inward. Then the neck, where the vase is given more height. Lastly, the lip, where the vase flares back out at the top. All these attributes can be seen in the picture at right. Many vases are also given handles. Today, the shapes of vases have evolved from the conventional ones to modern designs and shapes.
The vase has also developed as an art medium unto itself. The ancient Greeks famously used vases to depict scenes. It has since been developed and in 2003 the winner of the Turner Prize was Grayson Perry, for vase art.
Famous quotes containing the word vase:
“Forgotten and stinking they stick in the can.
And the vase breath’s better and all, and all.
And so for the end of our life to a man,
Just over, just over and all.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“We must rest here, for this is where the teacher comes.
On his desk stands a vase of tears.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Kitsch is the daily art of our time, as the vase or the hymn was for earlier generations. For the sensibility it has that arbitrariness and importance which works take on when they are no longer noticeable elements of the environment. In America kitsch is Nature. The Rocky Mountains have resembled fake art for a century.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)