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Catalogue

505. Appliqué Relief with a Comic Mask / Jug

Accession Number 2003.359
Dimensions H. 3.3, W. 3.1 cm; Wt. 17.96 g
Date Third–fourth centuries CE
Production Area Eastern Mediterranean
Material Translucent blue (medallion) and colorless greenish glass (vessel)
Modeling Technique and Decoration Free-blown (jug) and mold pressed (medallion); applied elements (medallion)
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Condition

Fragment. Surface bears patches of iridescence. Lower part of the stamp is missing.

Description

Roughly discoid appliqué, stamped in dark blue glass, with a theater mask. Comical, beardless, male mask with small, circular eye openings, wide-open smiling mouth, a prominent wig comprising 24 radiantly arranged ribs, and a protuberance on the center of the forehead. Visible on the back side are traces of the colorless greenish body of the vessel the medallion once decorated.

Comments and Comparanda

See cat. 504.

Provenance

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

, p. 194, no. 531.

Exhibitions

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