Condition
Intact. Some iridescence on the interior; few pinprick bubbles.
Description
Horizontal rim, folded out, down, and up, with an overhanging flange; short, cylindrical neck; thick-walled, spherical body; flat, slightly concave bottom. A pair of flat strap handles extend from the shoulder to halfway up the neck. The body is made of translucent purple glass, and the handles of transparent greenish glass.
The entire body is covered with picked-up color chips, that is, the splashware technique. The translucent purple glass was marvered to incorporate flakes of variously colored glass chips (opaque white, yellow, light blue, turquoise, and dark blue). The vessel was subsequently inflated, whereby the chips were distorted in the areas of greatest expansion.
Comments and Comparanda
The form is known in core-formed glass vessels from the sixth century BCE (cats. 53–56). Free-blown glass aryballoi are a well-represented form of globular flasks used to store and transport cosmetic oils in the first and second centuries CE. There are a few variants, identifiable in the shape of the rim. On the form, see Isings, Clasina. 1957. Roman Glass from Dated Finds. Groningen: Wolters., pp. 78–81, form 61; Sorokina, Nina. 1987. “Glass Aryballoi (First–Third Centuries A.D.) from the Northern Black Sea Region.” Journal of Glass Studies 29: 40–46., pp. 40–46 (especially 42), fig. 2:7–8; Israeli, Yael. 2003. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: The Eliahu Dobkin Collection and Other Gifts. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., pp. 42, 216; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2009. Ρωμαϊκή και παλαιοχριστιανική υαλουργία: 1ος αι. π.Χ.\–6ος αι. μ.Χ.: Παραγωγή και προϊόντα: Τα αγγεία από τη Θεσσαλονίκη και την περιοχή της. Athens: Sideris., pp. 271–272, form 111 = Antonaras, Anastassios. 2017. Glassware and Glassworking in Thessaloniki: First Century BC–Sixth Century AD. Oxford: Archaeopress., p. 137; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 264, no. 410; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2022. East of the Theater: Glassware and Glass Production. Corinth XIX.1. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens., p. 65, nos. 376–378. Examples decorated with splashware: Arakelian, B. N., G. A Tiratzian, and G. D. Khachatrian. 1969. The Glass of Ancient Armenia. The Archeological Monuments of Armenia 3; Monument and Speciments of Ancient Period, 1. Yerevan., p. 44, no. 68, fig. 68; Benzian, Hans, Dragisa Momirovic, and Sotheby’s. 1994. The Benzian Collection of Ancient and Islamic Glass, 7 July 1994, sale cat. London: Sotheby’s., no. 134; Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., p. 67, no. 10.
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 40, no. 395.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)