178. Flask

Condition

Fair condition. The surface bears small patches of iridescence on the inside and brownish accretions concentrated on the neck. A large fill has been added on the mouth.

Description

The body of the vessel was blown in a two-part, vertical mold.

Fire-polished rim; funnel mouth; cylindrical neck, constricted at its base; body in the shape of the head of a young, beardless, African man. He is represented having short, curly hair with small, round curls. The haircut leaves the neck and the relatively large ears visible. The forehead is short, the eyes are relatively large and oval, the nose is straight, the lips are thick, and the chin is small. The face is heavy and wide overall, in a fashion well-known in the Tetrarchic period.

The vessel rests on a slightly concave bottom. Along the undersurface of the bottom a straight ridge is visible, the seam between the two parts of the mold. No pontil mark is visible.

Comments and Comparanda

For head-shaped vessels, see comments on cat. 176. The flask is quite similar to a second-century CE glass flask form that presents a single ethnic head, with a known example from Alzey, Germany (Stern 1995, form F, p. 210, fig. 92). Compare it also with a find from Bonn (Fremersdorf 1961, p. 76, plate 168).

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

von Saldern et al. 1974, pp. 161, 171, no. 469.

Exhibitions

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