452. Fragment of a Mosaic Inlay with the Apis Bull

Condition

Fragment; the lower part is broken.

Description

The bull-god is depicted within a frame in the shape of a naos, that is, a portable shrine, the appropriate backdrop for a god. The surviving part of the frame consists of three straight pieces of orange glass—the flat sides and the protruding lintel—where the composite mosaic cane depicting the Apis bull was placed. The black and white bull stands against a deep green background, walking to the left on a red groundline. Between his horns is the sacred sun disk of Hathor in red, with a uraeus at the center. On his back is a black and yellow motif, probably the folds of his neck, although possibly the outline of a vulture’s wing, one of the characteristics associated with the Apis bull. In front of the bull stands an indiscernible object, probably a table for offerings. It rests on a biconical pedestal, which is yellow decorated with red lozenges, topped by a white surface with a semicircular yellow object, probably an offering. The area of the bull’s face and the object in front of him is distorted and discolored. The motif is clearly visible on both sides.

Comments and Comparanda

For the historical and technological evolution of glass inlays in Pharaonic Egypt and the Roman Empire, see comments on cat. 449.

Several glass inlays with the Apis bull on them are preserved in various museum collections. None is identical to this particular one, differing in both the combination of colors and the details, such as the table offering. For parallels, see Goldstein 1979, p. 235, no. 683: https://glasscollection.cmog.org/objects/4875/inlay; Freer Gallery of Art, Ettinghausen 1962, p. 19, fig. 53; Auth 1983, pp. 160–163, fig. 7; Gunter 2002, p. 110, fig. 4.16 upper row, F1909.530a–b, Liu 2008, p. 63: https://asia.si.edu/object/F1909.530a-b/; current whereabouts unknown, from the collection of George John Gregory: https://auctions.bertolamifinearts.com/it/lot/55466/egyptian-apis-bull-mosaic-glass-inlay-/; Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1972.1079: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/164316; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 59.9.63: https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-15465744/; Miho Museum 2001, p. 73, no. 91: http://www.miho.or.jp/booth/html/artcon/00002028e.htm. On the Virginia piece, the biconical yellow construction with a red central rod and a hemispherical mass at the center is identical to the one in the Getty collection. It also has a frame—this one in blue—that might have resembled the shrine lintel in the missing upper part. The ones in the Miho Museum and the Freer Gallery are probably cuts of the same glass rod.

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); 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. 126, no. 336j, illus. color plate p. 124.

Kater-Sibbes and Vermaseren 1975, p. 78, no. 558, plate CXCV.

Exhibitions

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

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