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Catalogue

131. Fragment of a Mosaic Glass Vessel

Accession Number 2003.258.2
Dimensions W. 4.2, L. 3.8, Th. 0.6–0.3 (at the notch) cm; Wt. 16.35 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or Egypt
Material Translucent amber-colored and opaque white and blue glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Made from a polychrome disk-shaped blank assembled from fused-together lengths and sections of round mosaic canes; slumped; rotary polished
View in Collection

Condition

Fragment, broken all around. The exterior is polished, probably in modern times. The interior is slightly dull.

Description

The fragment is mildly convex and belongs to the bottom of a vessel, probably a bowl. It is composed of banded mosaic sections placed sparsely in an amber-colored matrix. The banded sections comprise five white and dark blue layers of glass interchangeably arranged. In the interior, a reverse formation appears as if there are two layers of decoration, one on each surface over an amber-colored matrix. It is more probable that this is the result of the difference in temperature between the exterior and the interior of the glass during the slumping on the former mold.

The polished exterior retains parts of a circular groove 3.7 cm wide, and a mishap is also visible at one point on the circumference. The cutter placed the wheel on the exact position to form a perfect circle, but something prevented him from finishing the cut at this point and he continued 3 mm farther, giving to the object a slightly off-center, oval shape. After the breakage of the original vessel, it appears that its pieces were retrieved and repurposed as valuable decorative elements, and this particular fragment was used as a gem or inlay. In the notch around it is visible a thick layer of weathering, probably indicative of some kind of metal setting covering that area for an extended period of time.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see comments on cat. 86. On the various types of mosaic vessels present in the Getty collection, see comments on cat. 95. This vessel belongs to a group of early Roman glass vessels, almost exclusively bowls, deeper or shallow, and occasionally pyxides, distinguished by the applied, twisted coil that formed their rim, and by a body almost always made of lengths of composite canes. It can be ascribed to a very small group known as Short Strip Mosaic Vessels (, family II: pp. 252–253, nos. 368–369); see comments on cat. 128. For fragments of mosaic vessels used as insets in jewelry, see , pp. 281–287.

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); 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. 123, no. 332; p. 121, plate no. 332.

Exhibitions

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