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Catalogue

121. Mosaic Bowl

Accession Number 2003.252
Dimensions H. 3.8, Diam. rim 9.5, Diam. base 4.5 cm; Wt. 69.54 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or Egypt
Material Translucent purple and opaque white, yellow, and grayish-green glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Made from a polychrome disk-shaped blank assembled from fused-together sections and lengths (for the base-ring) of round mosaic canes; slumped over a convex former mold; applied base; rotary polished
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Condition

Intact.

Description

The bowl has a flaring lip; conical, cyma recta body; and flat bottom. It stands on a tall, splayed, circular base-ring formed by a single revolution of an applied coil of glass.

The vessel is made of discoid mosaic tesserae, with florets of two types: (1) translucent purple matrix with roughly five thin, opaque white rods; (2) translucent purple matrix with roughly five thin, opaque yellow rods. The coil of the base is ribbon mosaic comprising parallel layers of grayish-green and purple glass.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see and comments on cat. 86. On cast, angular vessels, see comments on cat. 89.

Provenance

By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his son, Gert Oppenländer, 1988; 1988–2003, Gert Oppenländer (Waiblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003

Bibliography

, p. 122, no. 321; p. 111, plate no. 321.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples (Los Angeles, 2009)

Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)