451. Fragment of an Inlay with a Theatrical Female Mask

Condition

Complete; broken in two pieces; part of the face is missing; some pinprick bubbles.

Description

Milky white half of theatrical mask, set on a light blue ground. Yellow, multilobed hairdo or wig rendered with straight, radiating rows of tiny “black” angular curls in yellow ground all around the head and forehead. These are framed with a single thick black line that follows the shape of the face and externally with two undulating lines set in yellow that forms triangular, crown-like projections at the upper part of the head. Rows of red and cream, eight-petaled rosettes set in white form radiating bands that connect the outer and inner ends of the wig. Three locks extend, freely and partly bent, from the lower end of the wig to the edge of the plaque. Eyebrow, eyelid, eye, and nose outlined in light blue. Wide-open black mouth outlined in red.

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 1962, p. 19, no. 37; Mahnke 2008, pp. 147–152, nos. 112–119, with prior bibliography.

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

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 126, no. 335c, illus. color plate p. 121, no. 335c.

Mahnke 2008, pp. 151–152, no. 119.

Wight 2011, pp. 42, 47, fig. 25.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

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

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