437. Bowl

Condition

Fully preserved; reassembled.

Description

The bowl was created from 36 glass canes, fused together in the following pattern: a composite cane of a blue band is flanked on either side by a rod of colorless glass in which two white rods spiral; this cane is flanked by a yellow band, which is in turn flanked by a complex cane composed of a white band flanked on either side by a rod of colorless-purplish glass in which spiral two white rods. The rim of the bowl forms a spiraled cane of colorless-purplish glass in which are spiraling two white rods.

Comments and Comparanda

This vessel is a replica of Roman imperial striped mosaic vessels, similar to cats. 125–126. It is a copy very close to the Roman prototypes produced in Venice. Mosaic glass had been attracting more and more attention from rich clientele since the discovery of Pompeii in 1748, and imitations are known from the late eighteenth–early nineteenth centuries. The technique met a great revival in Venice in the second half of the nineteenth century when large companies like those run by Antonio Salviati and Vincenzo Moretti operated there (Whitehouse 2007, pp. 36–39). This particular bowl has been tentatively ascribed to the Compagnia di Venezia e Murano (Italian; founded 1866, dissolved 1909) (Whitehouse 2007, p. 170, no. 74).

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, p. 122, no. 327; p. 123, plate no. 327.

Exhibitions

Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome (Malibu, 2007–2008; Corning, 2008)

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