438. Pseudo Vetro d’Oro Medallion

Condition

The rim is heavily chipped. A large fragment was reattached.

Description

Disk made of colorless, blue, and gold glass. The circular body is slightly convex. In its center, a standing female figure drawn on gold leaf wears a long tunic and an elaborate headdress. She opens her arms in a gesture of prayer. Gold inscriptions flank her: on the left of the figure, BELUCIA / FEDELISSSIMA / VIRCO / IM PACE/ IIIIX / CALENDAS / BENTURAS / SEPTEM/BRES / Belucia fedelissima virco im pace IIIIX calendas benturas Septembres, i.e., Belucia the most faithful virgin in peace (slept) August the 19th. On the right of the figure: OVE VIXYT / ANNOS / XVIII. Oue vixyt annos XVIII, i.e., which lived 18 years. A wide gold vine with tendrils set between two bands encircles the scene. At the center of the underside, the circular scar of a solid pontil (W. 0.7 cm) is visible.

The glassblower made a small plate of dark blue glass, which was annealed; later a gold foil was applied to it, which was cut and incised to form the desired representation. This was reheated and a transparent bubble of glass was blown onto it, which formed the interior bottom and walls of the bowl. In addition, a coil of colorless glass was wound around the disk, forming a coil base for the vessel. The base coil is pressed along its center where a horizontal groove is formed, creating the illusion that it consists of two different coils, the upper thicker and the lower finer.

Comments and Comparanda

This disk is a replica of well-known late antique vetri d’oro or gold-glass medallions and bowls. (On the ancient gold glass objects, see Pillinger 1984. For a recent, updated overview of this production and the examples in the rich collection of the British Museum, see Howells 2015.)

There are several known examples of these replicas, made and sold in Italy during the late nineteenth century, that today are part of museum collections. (For a general overview on these objects as a group, see Pillinger 1984, pp. 15–26; Whitehouse 2007, pp. 19–23.) Characteristic examples include those in the British Museum collection (Howells 2015, pp. 146–152), the Yale University Art Gallery (Matheson 1980, pp. 142–144), and the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse 1994, pp. 133–135).

The inscription and the standing female figure in a praying gesture replicate those carved on a marble epitaph from the Catacomba Ciriaca (San Lorenzo fuori la Mura) on Tiburtina Street in Rome, which is housed in the Musei Vaticani, Museo Pio Cristiano, dated between 325 and 374. This epitaph is published in ILCV, 1, 1354, and depicted in Perret 1851, pl. IX, no. 18. Notably, the glassmaker misinterpreted the figure’s name, rendering it as “Belucia” instead of “Bellicia.”

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

Elbern 1967.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 142, no. 400, ill.

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)