Condition
Fully preserved with weathering and some small areas of iridescence. Mended.
Description
Flattened, irregular cylindrical gold-glass bead. Thread hole along its longer dimension.
An impressed standing nude young male figure is depicted on the front of the bead. He is the god Harpocrates, the son of Isis and Osiris (LIMC IV.1 s.v. “Harpocrates,” pp. 415–445, esp. pp. 419–423 for representations with cornucopia). He rests his weight on his right leg, and his left leg is slightly bent so that the pelvis and torso are positioned in contrapposto. The figure has protruding belly. The head is presented en face. The figure bends his right hand up across his chest in the typical gesture of silence, with the index finger to his lips. With his left hand he holds a large cornucopia next to his body.
The back side of the bead is undecorated and smooth.
Comments and Comparanda
Gold-glass beads appear from the Hellenistic period onward. They are made of two layers of glass with metal foil between them as their principal decoration. They were used as a substitute for metal beads and they were popular in Egypt, where they were probably produced, and in Nubia. Rhodes, Macedonia, and the Black Sea coast have also been identified as manufacturing centers of gold-glass beads (Alekseeva, Ekaterina Mikhailovna. 1978. Antichnnye Busy Severnowo Prichernomorja, Arheologia SSSR Svod Arheologcheskih Istochnikov G1–12. / Античные бусы Северново Причерноморья. Археология CCCR Свод Археологических Источников Г1–12. Moscow: Nauka., pp. 27–32; Weinberg, Gladys Davidson. 1971. “Glass Manufacture in Hellenistic Rhodes.” Archaiologikon Deltion 24: 143–151., pp. 147–148, figs. 1–2, plate 82a; Spaer, Maud. 1993. “Gold-Glass Beads: A Review of the Evidence.” Beads 5: 9–25., pp. 9–25; Spaer, Maud. 2001. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: Beads and Other Small Objects. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., pp. 130–135). Usually they are plain; occasionally they are decorated with ribbing or granular patterns and very rarely with impressed motifs like the god Harpocrates and a female deity (Spaer, Maud. 2001. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: Beads and Other Small Objects. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., p. 137, nos. 234–235; Spaer, Maud. 1993. “Gold-Glass Beads: A Review of the Evidence.” Beads 5: 9–25., p. 16, fig. 11). An almost identical bead is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (10.130.2477: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/558843) and another in the British Museum (1879,0522.33: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1879-0522-33). Harpocrates was also represented on glass pendants, dating to the late second–first centuries BCE (Froehner, Wilhelm. 1903. Collection Julien Gréau. Verrerie antique, émaillerie et poterie appartenant à M. John Pierpont Morgan. Paris., no. 843, p. 122, plate 151.3, 151.5, now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection; also one in the Louvre: Arveiller-Dulong, Véronique, and Marie-Dominique Nenna. 2011. Les verres antiques du Musée du Louvre 3: Parure, instruments et éléments d’incrustation. Paris: Somogy Editions., p. 39, no. 28).
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
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 83, no. 232.
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)