Condition
Intact; some incrustation on the interior.
Description
Rim cracked off; truncated, conical body; base plain, very slightly concave, no pontil mark. Two wheel-incised fine lines just below the rim. Wall decorated with six horizontal bands of eight three-tiered drop-shaped bosses; each row is offset from row above it so that bosses are arranged in quincunx. A horizontal ring articulates the bottom of the vessel above the flattened base. Base decorated with a small central boss, a concentric ring at the middle of the bottom, and a pair of larger rings at the edge of it.
Comments and Comparanda
This beaker belongs to a large group of vessels decorated with pointed, three-tiered knobs, sometimes with additional motifs such as circular bosses and theatrical masks, occasionally accompanied by linear patterns or vine sprays (Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., pp. 45–46, form 31; Stern, Eva Marianne. 1995. The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., pp. 103–107, nos. 8–10, with thorough bibliography). Diverse interpretations have been proposed for the knobs: bosses, lotus buds, almonds, or knots in the trunk of a tree. The three-tiered shape with profiled edges, though, can only be connected to an olive tree’s knobs. Hercules’s club was made from the trunk of an olive tree and is represented with prominent knobs in many media, including at least three club-shaped glass bottles (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1995. The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., p. 107, no. 38). This hypothesis was first proposed by Clasina Isings (Isings, Clasina. 1976. “Exchanged for Sulphur.” In Festoen: Opgedragen aan A. N. Zadoks-Josephus Jitta bij haar zeventigst verjaardag, ed. Johannes S. Boersma et al., 353–356. Scripta Archaeologica Groningana 6. Groningen: H. D. Tjeenk Willink; Bussum: Fibula–Van Dishoeck., p. 353), and it seems quite logical to associate these vessels with Hercules and some of his virtues, as well as his affinity for endless drinking.
Vessels decorated with tiered knobs have a wide but uneven distribution throughout the Roman Empire and beyond its borders. Examples decorated exclusively with knobs are ascribed to the western part of the Empire (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1995. The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., p. 104, with thorough bibliography).
Finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum (Scatozza Höricht, Lucia Amalia. 1986. I vetri romani di Ercolano. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., p. 19, plate 1, top center; Scatozza Höricht, Lucia Amalia. 2001. “Syrian Elements among the Glass from Pompeii and Herculaneum.” In Two Centuries of Art and Invention, ed. Martine Newby and Kenneth Painter, 76–86. Occasional Papers from the Society of Antiquaries of London 13. London: Society of Antiquaries of London., p. 82, fig. 16a–b) show that these beakers were already in use before 79 CE, when the cities were destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, a date that is supported by finds from Switzerland (Berger, Ludwig. 1960. Römische Gläser aus Vindonissa. Veröffentlichungen der Gesellschaft Pro Vindonissa IV. Basel: Birkhäuser., pp. 52–54; Rütti, Beat. 1991. Die römischen Gläser aus Augst und Kaiseraugst. Augst: Römermuseum., II, p. 71), the Netherlands (Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., p. 41, form 31), and Türkiye (Stern, Eva Marianne. 1995. The Toledo Museum of Art. Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider., p. 106 n. 23). It is not clear how long they continued to be used after the late first century, but the latest are recorded in contexts up to the second century. Other comparanda include Whitehouse, David B. 2000. “Ancient Glass from ed-Dur (Umm al-Qaiwain, U.A.E.) 2: Glass Excavated by the Danish Expedition.” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 11: 87–128., pp. 112–113, no. 97; Whitehouse, David B. 2001. Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glass., pp. 27–28, nos. 492–496; Foy, Danièle, and Marie Dominique Nenna. 2001. Tout feu, tout sable: Mille ans de verre antique dans le midi de la France, exh. cat. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud., p. 182, no. 305; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 77, no. 77; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2017. Glassware and Glassworking in Thessaloniki: First Century BC–Sixth Century AD. Oxford: Archaeopress., pp. 71–72, form 21, with several new finds from controlled excavations in the Balkans, Cyprus, and Black Sea coast.
Provenance
1985, Robert Haber (New York, New York), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1985
Bibliography
“Acquisitions/1985.” J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 14 (1986): 175–286., p. 195, no. 67.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 77, 87, fig. 59.
Exhibitions
Ancient Art from the Permanent Collection (Los Angeles, 1999–2004)