Condition
Upper part missing.
Description
Profile head to the right. Facial features well articulated. Almond-shaped, oval eye; straight nose; chubby cheeks; full lips; small, round chin; large ear; wide neck, ending in a semicircle. The once-inlaid eye is not preserved and the cavity is rough. A small part of the white headdress is still attached to the top of the head over the ear and along the neck. Underside flat.
Comments and Comparanda
In ancient Egypt prefabricated, colorful glass inlays were often used as parts of decorative composite reliefs in figural scenes and inscriptions on wooden, ivory, and stone objects such as shrines, statues and statuettes, mummies, mummy masks, coffins, and expensive furniture. The body parts of the kings were rendered mostly in red and those of the gods in blue-greenish glass. These inlays either protruded in relief or were placed in individual cells half- or completely sunken in the surface of the object. They appeared from the Eighteenth Dynasty, during the reign of Amenhotep III (1387–1350 BCE) (Cooney, John D. 1960. “Glass Sculpture in Ancient Egypt.” Journal of Glass Studies 2: 11–44., pp. 11–33; Stern, Eva Marianne, and Birgit Schlick–Nolte. 1994. Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.–A.D. 50: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern: Gerd Hatje., p. 143, comments on no. 11).
For comparanda, see Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 27, no. 28; p. 25, plate no. 28; Goldstein, Sidney M. 1979. Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glas., p. 88, no. 164, p. 227, no. 659; Stern, Eva Marianne, and Birgit Schlick–Nolte. 1994. Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.–A.D. 50: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern: Gerd Hatje., pp. 340–345, nos. 105–108; “Per-neb” Collection 1992, no. 30, p. 21 top left; Maeda, Akiyu. 2001. “Early Glass.” In Ancient Glass / Kodai garasu, 17–20. Shigaraki: Miho Museum, 2001., pp. 72, 199, nos. 86–87; Bianchi, Robert Steven. 2002. “Ancient Glass from the Cultural Perspective of Ancient Egypt.” In Reflections on Ancient Glass from the Borowski Collection, Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, ed. Robert Steven Bianchi, Birgit Schlick-Nolte, G. Max Bernheimer, and Dan Barag, 111–156. Mainz: von Zabern., pp. 141–142, nos. EG-25, EG-26; Arveiller-Dulong, Véronique, and Marie-Dominique Nenna. 2011. Les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre 3: Parure, instruments et éléments d’incrustation. Paris: Somogy Editions., p. 375, nos. 591–592.
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. 27, no. 28; p. 25, plate no. 28.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 16, 21, fig. 10.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)