First of all, as observed above, Hirst draws effectively upon his background in print-making in the handling of graphic details in his glass. At the same time, Hirst's handling of volume and mass is confident and informed by a natural sensitivity to sculptural form and expression.

Furthermore, his personal language of forms has evolved not as an overnight phenomenon but rather over the course of some two decades of practice and it is inflected bv an abiding interest in antique and historical styles and idioms. Most notably, Hirst's vessel forms reveal his study of Cycladic stone sculpture, and reflect his fascination with the inscrutable that are Cycladic heads and figures notable for a kind of proto-modernism in terms of their smoothly-contoured, featureless bodies.

Early in his career, Hirst had seen in the Art Gallerv of New South Wales, Sydney's principal art museum, an example of a Cycladic stone figure. As the artist himself says of the encounter, the sheer "mystery, wonder and anonymity.." of the work(and of the genre all told) appealed greatly to him.

The simple harmony of the stylized ovoid forms provided the young Australian with a fruitful point of departure for his own exploration of a kind of imagery that was invested with a sense of ritual significance unencumbered by overly specific values or heavy psychological associations. Hirst's thoughtful "appropriation" and re-interpretation of the geometry of the Cycladic prototypes, and his enduring interest in historical forms and styles of assorted periods and cultures, has invested his work with an unmistakable character that is historicising without being histrionic.