Condition
Mended and filled in some areas of the rim. There are two perforations (diam. 0.2 cm) at 0.4 cm below the rim, placed across from each other. In the perforations, layers of white weathering are visible.
Description
Ground vertical rim; hemispherical bowl; flat bottom. The bowl is made of a disk formed from a single composite cane of glass which consists in turn of three wide layers, one a translucent amber-color and two purple, each flanked by a thin layer of opaque white glass. The cane was bent at least 12 times, creating the illusion of veins in agate.
Comments and Comparanda
Agate was one of the favorite stones of the Romans, and its rich colors and intricate veins of different colors were rendered in glass in Hellenistic and Roman times (Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., pp. 192–193, 247–249; Weinberg, Gladys D., and Murray C. McClellan. 1992. Glass Vessels in Ancient Greece: Their History Illustrated from the Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Athens: Archaeological Receipt Fund., pp. 56–58, 97–98). Agate glass vessels are known in several shapes: shallow bowls like this vessel (Platz-Horster, Gertrud. 1992. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Die Antikensammlung im Pergamonmuseum und in Charlottenburg. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 303, no. 166), deeper bowls (Azuma, Yoko. 2001. “New Age of Glass.” In Ancient Glass, 93–128. Shigaraki: Miho Museum., no. 127), bottles (Fossing, Poul. 1940. Glass Vessels before Glass-Blowing. Copenhagen: Munksgaard., p. 114, fig. 860), and spindle-shaped alabastra (Auth, Susan Handler. 1976. Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum from the Eugene Schaefer Collection of Antiquities. Newark, NJ: Newark Museum., p. 53, no. 43; Grose, David Frederick. 1989. Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50. New York: Hudson Hills Press., p. 369, no. 668; Schlick-Nolte, Birgit. 2002. “Ancient Glass Vessels.” In Reflections on Ancient Glass from the Borowski Collection: Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, ed. Robert S. Bianchi, 41–110. Mainz: von Zabern., pp. 88–90, V-47). They are ascribed to Italian workshops, especially in Rome. For a gold-band plate, see Alekseeva, E. M., and N. P. Sorokina. 2007. Kollekcya stekla antichnoj Gorgippii (I–III vv.) [Collection of the glass of the antique Gorgippia (1st–3rd century)]. Moscow: Interbuk-biznes., pp. 54–57, figs. 7–8, plate 37:1–2.
In addition, many ribbed bowls were formed with marbled mosaic glass that was a rendition of agate with opaque white wavy veins in a dark-colored translucent matrix, often dark blue or purple, for example cat. 133 (Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., pp. 19–20, form 3b; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2017. Glassware and Glassworking in Thessaloniki: First Century BC–Sixth Century AD. Oxford: Archaeopress., pp. 54–56, form 6b).
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 122, no. 324; p. 117, plate no. 324.
Del Bufalo, Dario. 2016. Murrina Vasa: A Luxury of Imperial Rome. Bibliotheca Archaeologica 53. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., p. 184, fig. 3.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2009–2010)
Classical Connections: The Enduring Influence of Greek and Roman Art (Los Angeles, 2003–2008)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)