Wine bowls such as this were made throughout the Caucasus, a vast region encompassing present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and part of northern Russia. They are sometimes called hunting bowls, as many feature stags, hares or other hunted animals. The subject of this decoration is the classical myth of the poet Orpheus charming the birds, animals and trees with the beauty of his music. Orpheus usually plays a lute but here the goldsmith follows the Italian Renaissance tradition of depicting him with an instrument similar to a violin.