492. Fragment of a Mosaic Inlay with Geometrical Motif

Condition

Fragment, broken all around.

Description

Flat mosaic inlay. A checkerboard pattern of adjoining lozenges comprising tiny polychrome square tesserae arranged to form a diamond pattern. Each floret consists of a lozenge composed of a square central translucent purple tessera surrounded by bands of white, red, purple, green, yellow, purple, white, and red glass tesserae set in a translucent purple band.

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 parallels with identical motifs, see Fitzwilliam 1978, p. 28, no. 45, from Egypt; Grose 1989, p. 363, no. 634; Arveiller-Dulong and Nenna 2011, p. 390, nos. 644–645; unpublished example at Metropolitan Museum of Art (26.7.1243): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/571962; also, same pattern in slightly different combinations, Metropolitan Museum of Art (26.7.1242), unpublished: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/571961.

For a double-convex bowl made of mosaic glass with this checkerboard motif, see Christie’s 1985, p. 97, no. 173.

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. 123, no. 332; p. 121, plate no. 332.

Exhibitions

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

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