169. Mythological Beaker

Condition

Intact, with some cracks; minor chipping on the rim. Incrustation on interior and exterior.

Description

Rim cut off, tapers inward above bulge of overblow; conical body; flat bottom. A raised wide band at the outer edge of the bottom and a ring at the middle.

Body is decorated in mold-blown high relief with four figures standing on the groundline, separated by fluted columns on double torus base and with triangular capital, probably Ionian. A straight garland of four pairs of leaves runs between the columns.

The figures are the following:

Figure A: Poseidon or Neptune. A bearded figure, standing frontally, facing to the right, wearing a head band. His weight rests on his right leg and the left leg is bent. The long himation exposes his upper torso, falling from his left shoulder to cover his lower body from the waist down. In his raised left arm, he holds a trident; in his outstretched right hand a dolphin is poised snout downward.

Figure B: A beardless youth walking to the right wearing a chlamys, leaving his right thigh bare. His hair is pulled up, as if rolled around a fillet. His body is depicted almost frontally, his weight on his left leg. In his lowered right hand, behind him, he holds a small, oval object, and in his outstretched left hand, at chest level, a bird. Previously thought to be a personification of a Season, perhaps Autumn (Weinberg 1972, pp. 42–43), and more recently identified by Wight (Wight 1994, p. 35) as Bonus Eventus, a personification associated with the harvest, and later used as a symbol of prosperity and good fortune (LIMC 3, pp. 123–126, s.v. “Bonus Eventus”). The object in his left hand is identified as three stalks of grain or flowers.

Figure C: A youthful, beardless Dionysus or Bacchus, his hair pulled up, facing to the right, stands frontally, wearing a chitoniskos. He is resting his weight on his right leg and his left leg is bent. In his left hand he is holding an upright thyrsus; in his right hand he holds a kantharos and pours wine into the open mouth of a small panther, which sits next to and behind his right foot.

Figure D: A male, who stands in three-quarter frontal position, resting his weight on his left leg, his right leg bent. He is wearing a chitoniskos that is draped to expose his upper torso, loosely folded on his left shoulder. His left arm is bent at the elbow to hold a curved, upright staff upon the left shoulder. In his lowered right hand is an oval vessel. His hair is pulled up, as if rolled around a fillet. This figure had been previously identified as Hermes, Sylvanus, or a Season (Weinberg 1972, pp. 42–43), but more recently and plausibly was identified by Wight (Wight 1994, p. 36) as Hymen, the staff as a flaming torch, and the vessel as a marriage loutrophoros.

Comments and Comparanda

The vessel belongs to a group of truncated conical beakers decorated with mold-blown figures; they are known as “mythological beakers” because of the mythological figures appearing on them. (For the classification of the shape: Weinberg 1972, pp. 26–47, with several examples dated to the second half of the first century CE; Wight 1990, pp. 71–76.) This particular beaker, on the basis of its decoration, belongs to a subgroup of beakers with the figures less finely rendered yet still quite identifiable. Among the examples of this group, at least three different molds have been discerned on the basis of the number of figures (either three or four) and whether they stand on pedestals or not, like on this particular vessel. The figures have been identified as Neptune, Bacchus, and two Seasons (Weinberg 1972, pp. 42–43) or Bonus Eventus and Hymen (Wight 1994, pp. 35, 36).

Provenance

1981, Private Collection (central Switzerland); 1985, Ernst Kofler, 1899–1989, and Marthe Truniger, 1918–1999 (Lucerne, Switzerland); 1985, Private Collection [sold, Ancient Glass: Formerly the Kofler-Truniger Collection, Christie’s, London, March 5–6, 1985, lot 92, to the J. Paul Getty Museum through Robin Symes, Limited]

Bibliography

3000 Jahre Glaskunst, p. 19, color plate; p. 81, no. 274 (with drawing).

Christie’s 1985, lot 92.

JPGM Acquisitions 1985, p. 195, no. 69.

Clayton 1986, p. 183.

Drury 1986, p. 68.

JGS 1986, p. 99, fig. 3.

Wight 1990, p. 71, n. 1.

Wight 1991, p. 66, figs. 52–55.

Wight 1994, pp. 42–43, figs. 23–26.

Wight 2000, p. 75, n. 45.

Wight 2011, pp. 77, 88, fig. 60.

JPGM Handbook Antiquities 1st ed., p. 207.

JPGM Handbook Antiquities rev. ed., p. 217.

Exhibitions

None