239. Bowl

Condition

Mended; part of the rim is filled.

Description

Cracked-off, slightly inward-leaning rim; wide body, curving in toward the flat bottom. A faint horizontal incision is visible 0.4 cm below the rim.

Around the body painted decoration is arranged, comprising four main features:

1. A reddish-brown gazelle, with short strokes along its belly and long, nearly straight antlers, is presented in profile, moving to the right. The gazelle is mid-stride, with its hind legs shown at some distance from one another, while its front are shown parallel and very close to one another, as if standing. The animal has a large eye, open mouth, and ears bent back. The body of the animal partly conceals a bush with big lanceolate leaves.

2. In front of the gazelle is a large bow of three garlands—ribbons—tied together whose central part is decorated with flowers. The lateral garlands are held up by both ends while one end of the central garland hangs down in a loose spiral. The two lateral garlands have yellow flowers, and the central one has red flowers.

3. To the right of the garlands, a bird is depicted in profile, standing on short grass and in front of a bush. Its body is outlined in red, black, and yellow, and its feet are red. The bird has a round head and short beak; it is possibly a partridge.

4. Further to the right are depicted two more birds of the same species, apparently dead, hanging by their feet.

The decoration concludes with a large bow of three ribbons, whose central part is decorated with flowers. Two are yellow, and the one at the center is red. The perimeter of the vessel’s bottom is delineated with 36 strokes. Four ends of what was once an eight-pointed star are visible on the bottom of the vessel.

Comments and Comparanda

This form of first-century bowl is quite widely distributed (Isings 1957, pp. 27–30, form 12). There are 80 known vessels with enameled decoration like this one; aside from these predominantly identical bowls, there are two amphoriskoi (Rütti 1991b, pp. 124–130; Whitehouse 2001a, pp. 255–258, nos. 846–852; Rütti 2003, pp. 341–349; Mandruzzato and Marcante 2005, pp. 46, 93, no. 215; Czurda-Ruth 2007, pp. 59–60, no. 104, plates 7, 34; Nenna 2008, pp. 15–29). They were mostly made of a dark-colored glass acting as a contrasting background for the polychrome decoration. The decoration was pulverized colored glass, bound with oil or water, applied with a brush onto the vessel’s surface, and subsequently fired at a relatively low temperature, enough to fuse it but not so high as to deform the vessel. The decoration of these enameled vessels included vine tendrils, ivy leaves, garlands, and animals (bird, fish, gazelle); a few bear Nilotic scenes. Usually, the underside of the bottoms was decorated with a bird, a rosette, or a star, like this example. They are dated in the period between 20 and 70 CE, and it is still not established whether they were produced in Italy or, less probably, in the eastern Mediterranean. Among the overall similar decorations appearing on this group of vessels, the closest to this bowl are three bowls from Piedmont, Olbia, and Greece (Rütti 1991b, plate 35b, fig. 25a–c).

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. 140, 152, no. 397, ill.

Rütti 1991b, p. 130, plate 35, fig. 25b.

Wight 2011, pp. 63, 71, fig. 47.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

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