460. Fragment of a Mosaic Inlay with Floral Theme

Condition

Fragment; one straight edge of the original is preserved.

Description

Plaque with floral decoration. Set on a translucent dark green-blue ground, the following motifs are discernible: one green and yellow poppy-like lotus fruit; a quatrefoil rosette formed by sequential layers (read from center to outer edge) of yellow, white, and red glass; a six-petal white flower with yellow center.

On the back side are visible the reinforcements of irregular pieces of ribbed glass of the different florets that compose the decorative theme.

Comments and Comparanda

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

This object is part of the largest known group of mosaic plaques, those decorated with floral motifs. They are almost exclusively found in Egypt, where they were made between the end of the first century BCE and the early first century CE. It has been estimated that the plaques were rectangles about 12–15 cm in height and 6–7 cm in width. The front side of the plaques is always ground and polished (Grose 1989, pp. 355–356). The motifs extend through the thickness, and the back side is partially covered by a backing of waste and chips of mosaic glass. The plaques adorned architectural elements and furniture. Two groups are distinguished on the basis of their quality: the finer and rarer one is characterized by a translucent cobalt blue or dark blue ground and carefully executed mosaic motifs; the second group, which is much more numerous, consists of thicker plaques with a translucent to transparent greenish-blue ground, with the motifs less regularly shaped and the backings usually made from a crude, uneven matrix of short, rectangular cane lengths.

Among the pieces in the Getty collection those on dark blue background prevail, with five examples (cats. 462, 464–466, 479), while those on greenish background number only two (cats. 460–461). The plants depicted are mostly lotus stalks and flowers (Nelumbo nucifera), ears of wheat, a bunch of grapes, all in profile; a four-petaled red and white flower, a star-shaped white flower, white and yellow circles, all three motifs as would be viewed from above.

For parallels, see Cooney 1976, pp. 132–134, nos. 1642–1663; Grose 1989, pp. 355–356, nos. 646–653, Ptolemaic cast floral plaques; Tatton-Brown 1991, p. 61, fig. 74; “Per-neb” Collection 1992, p. 11, no. 7; Stern and Schlick-Nolte 1994, pp. 404–407, nos. 146–147; Allen et al. 2001, p. 17; Miho Museum 2001, p. 86, no. 118; Spaer 2001, pp. 248–249, nos. 600–603; Platz-Horster 2002, pp. 147–149, fig. 1; Arveiller-Dulong and Nenna 2011, pp. 393–395, nos. 649–651; Antonaras 2012, pp. 288–289, nos. 478–482.

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); 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. 123, no. 332.

Exhibitions

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