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491. Fragment of a Mosaic Inlay with Floral Motif

Accession Number 2004.26.4
Dimensions L. 3.2, W. 2.9 cm; Wt. 6.00 g
Date First century BCE–first century CE
Production Area Egypt or Italy
Material Opaque red, yellow, green, and white and translucent blue glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Fusion
View in Collection

Condition

Fragment, broken all around.

Description

Mosaic inlay with floral motif. The basic motif, set in a checkerboard pattern, consists of a flower with four triangular green petals outlined in yellow, set in a red square with concave sides framed by four blue ovals outlined in white. Each tessera is lozenge-shaped, and along each center is placed the oval motif that stretches to the two corners. On each of the other two corners is a green triangle set in yellow. Four such tesserae form the quatrefoil flower motif, framed by ovals, which is set in a checkerboard pattern that covers the plaque.

Back side mainly murky green with some red areas only partly visible.

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 a closer parallel, see , p. 380, no. 617.

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

, p. 123, no. 332.

Exhibitions

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