Condition
Mended. Half of the rim and part of the bottom are added. Τhere is likely overpaint on the surface to disguise the repairs. Tooling marks on the upper- and underside of the rim and on the neck. Whitish core remains in the interior.
Description
Translucent dark blue ground; opaque yellow, turquoise, and white decoration. Broad, horizontal rim-disk, slightly sloping to the outside; cylindrical neck, tapering upward; rudimentary shoulder and cylindrical body, slightly tapering toward the shoulder; shallow, convex bottom. Below the shoulder are two opposing ring handles with long straight tails; neither handle is pierced.
An unmarvered yellow thread is wound around the rim. The body of the vessel, from the shoulder down, is decorated with spirally wound groups of opaque yellow, white, and turquoise marvered threads—yellow appearing four times, and white and turquoise three times. In total more than 50 lines of colored glass are discernible from the bottom to the rim. The threads are dragged 16 times upward and downward, forming a delicate feather pattern.
Comments and Comparanda
On the origins of core-formed alabastra and early examples, see comments on cat. 10. This object belongs to the second group of core-formed vessels, which appears after the early fourth century BCE and continues to be made until the third century BCE (Harden, Donald B. 1981. Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. 1: Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenean Cast Objects. London: British Museum., pp. 100–121; 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. 115–122). They were probably produced in more workshops and are found predominantly in mainland Greece, as well as in central and southern Italy. Initially the vessel types of the first group are repeated, differing only in shape and decoration, but later on new shapes appear, like the hydriske, the unguentarium, and the lentoid aryballos. For the classification of this particular alabastron, see 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., class II:A, alabastron form II:2: pp. 154–155, nos. 127–128.
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, Axel. 1974. Glassammlung Hentrich. Antike und Islam. Düsseldorf: Kunstmuseum., p. 73, no. 190; p. 61, plate no. 190.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Collections. 7th ed. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007., p. 46, ill.
The J. Paul Getty Museum Handbook of the Antiquities Collection. Rev. ed. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2010., p. 103.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. pp. 29, 33, fig. 18.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)