455. Fragment of a Mosaic Inlay with Floral Motif

Condition

Fragment. A missing part has been filled with resin. Front side seems to have been polished in modern times. On the back, the lower part is covered by a glassy layer.

Description

Rectangular inlay, broken on both ends. Front and back sides flat. The design extends through the thickness of the plaque. The upper part is uneven but clear and the motifs are clearly visible. Only the left edge is straight and probably preserves the original edge of the band.

Part of an elongated decorative band with palmettes, the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. In the preserved part, the same motif appears partially three times: palmette with six leaves and yellow lanceolate stem standing on two spiral tendrils. The motif is outlined in white glass on a dark blue background, and only the palmette stem is made of opaque yellow glass. The lower preserved palmette differs in the red used in an oval at the upper end of the lanceolate stem and at the outer edges of the petals.

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 Grose 1989, pp. 346, 364, no. 643; Miho Museum 2001, pp. 81, 201, no. 113.

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. 121, plate 336e; p. 126.

Exhibitions

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