Condition
Intact
Description
The upper and lower parts of the bead are made of opaque red glass. There is no base mass, and the back side of the mosaic sections is visible. In the thread hole, the bands appear to have been added onto the central band, which is dark-colored. Four plaques each one with a Medusa’s face placed in a white, roundish outline comprise the central band. There are no additional plaques between the plaques with the Medusas. The faces are partly deformed and not perfectly aligned. The red coil on one end is imperfectly wound, permitting us to see that it was wound on the blue band with the embedded face florets. The other red coil is partly covered by two of the faces that appear to have “sagged” over it.
Comments and Comparanda
On mosaic face beads, see comments on cat. 534 and 535. For provenance, bibliography, and exhibitions, see group entry, cat. 534.