of

134. Ribbed Bowl

Accession Number 2004.25
Dimensions H. 4.9, Diam. rim 17.0, Diam. base 8.1 cm; Wt. 341.50 g
Date Ca. 50 BCE–ca. 50 CE
Production Area Roman Empire, probably Italy
Material Translucent blue and opaque white 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 pressed and polished
View in Collection

Condition

Mended; fully preserved.

Description

Vertical, smooth, fire-rounded rim; shallow convex body decorated with 19 vertical ribs, mildly slanting to the left and relatively evenly spaced. Ribs start 1.5 cm below the rim, and they are visible to the center of the bottom. In the interior, three grooves 0.1 cm thick are visible: two next to each other at the periphery of the bottom (W. 7.1, Th. 0.1 cm) and a small one at the center (W. 1.1, Th. 0.2 cm).

Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of a composite cane of dark blue glass in which a fine, opaque white thread was spiraled two times. The sections were fused together into a single mass, which was slumped over a former mold, and the ribs were formed by tooling while the form was on a rotating base, probably a potter’s wheel.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see comments on cat. 86. On the trade of small fragments of mosaic glass in nineteenth-century Rome and on the different techniques and classes of mosaic glass present in the Getty collection, see comments on cat. 95. On agate and marbled vessels, see comments on cat. 132. On mosaic glass ribbed bowls, see cat. 133. For direct comparanda, see , pp. 18–19, form 3a; , pp. 13–16, plates 1:16–17, 2:18; , pp. 16–17, nos. 8–9; , p. 113, nos. 423, 443, fig. 48; , pp. 279, 281–282, nos. 291, 300, 305; , pp. 58–59, fig. 67 left; , p. 37, form 2.1.4, fig. 11; , pp. 172–173, plates XXIX:3–4, XXX:1–3, XLVIII:3–4, 6–8; , pp. 54–56, form 6a.

Provenance

By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004

Bibliography

, p. 122, no. 328.

, pp. 42, 47, fig. 26.

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)