54. Aryballos

Condition

Intact, with very few abrasions and scratches. Reddish remains of the core in the interior.

Description

Translucent dark blue body; opaque yellow and turquoise decoration. Broad inward-sloping rim-disk; cylindrical neck; obtuse-angled shoulder; almost spherical body; convex bottom. Two dark blue ring handles with knobbed tails extend from the upper part of the neck near the rim to the shoulder.

An unmarvered opaque yellow thread is wound around the rim. A wide marvered yellow thread starts on the neck as a large flake that covers almost the entire height of the neck on one side and spirals around the shoulders and the upper body, where a marvered opaque turquoise thread is wound twice, and they are both dragged up and down, forming a zigzag pattern. Below this a marvered yellow thread is wound horizontally twice around the body.

Comments and Comparanda

See comments on cat. 53. For the classification of this particular aryballos, see Grose 1989, class I:B, aryballos form I:1: p. 151, no. 119.

Provenance

1908, Arnold Vogell, 1857–1911 (Karlsruhe, Germany) [sold, Griechische Altertümer südrussischen Fundorts aus dem Besitze des Herrn A. Vogell, Karlsruhe (Versteigerung), Max Cramer, Cassel, Germany, May 26–30, 1908, lot 1041]; 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

Cramer 1908, lot 1041.

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 65, no. 151, plate no. 151.

Exhibitions

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

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