Condition
Complete; slight chipping on edges; some pinprick bubbles. Encased in a resin in modern times.
Description
Milky white half-mask of Dionysus, set on a dark blue ground. Red hair rendered with tiny “black” spirals in red ground at upper part of the head and forehead; red and black vertical strands and three corkscrew locks at sideburns and below the neck. Eyebrow, eyelid, eye, and nose outlined in black. Small, open black mouth outlined in red. Indicating a wreath in the hair are four green, trilobed ivy leaves, outlined in yellow, along with an ivy flower-cluster, of green circles outlined in yellow and black. A green band, outlined in yellow and black, is on the forehead below the hair.
Comments and Comparanda
For the historical and technological evolution of glass inlays in Pharaonic Egypt and the Roman Empire, see comments on cat. 449. For close parallels, see Ettinghausen, Richard. 1962. Ancient Glass in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution., p. 19, nos. 36, 37, 39, 40, 45; Tatton-Brown, Veronica, and Carol Andrews. 1991. “Before the Invention of Glassblowing.” In Five Thousand Years of Glass, ed. Hugh Tait, 21–61. London: British Museum Press., p. 52, fig. 59; 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. 376–378, nos. 126–127; Maeda, Akiyu. 2001. “Early Glass.” In Ancient Glass / Kodai garasu, 17–20. Shigaraki: Miho Museum, 2001., p. 77, no. 101; 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., p. 145, no. EG-30a–c; Mahnke, Charis. 2008. Alexandrinische Mosaikglaseinlagen: Die Typologie, Systematik und Herstellung von Gesichterdarstellungen in der ptolemäischen Glaskunst. Philippika: Marburger Altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 22. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz., 105–113, nos. 40–52, with prior bibliography; Antonaras, Anastassios. 2012. Fire and Sand: Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., p. 286, no. 472.
Provenance
By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004
Bibliography
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 126, no. 335b, illus. color plate p. 121, no. 335b.
Mahnke, Charis. 2008. Alexandrinische Mosaikglaseinlagen: Die Typologie, Systematik und Herstellung von Gesichterdarstellungen in der ptolemäischen Glaskunst. Philippika: Marburger Altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 22. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz., pp. 109–110, no. 47.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)