Condition
Fully preserved. Tiny chips on the side.
Description
Circular medallion with oval suspension ring on the top. The suspension ring is drawn out of a lump of glass folded backward over a rod and reattached when the device was stamped onto the medallion. Circular die. Crisp relief. Back side is smooth and flat.
Stamped, frontal bust of a beardless figure, flanked by an inscription that identifies her as Victory, ΝΙΚΗ, written in capital Greek letters: vertically arranged, on the left side, facing upward, ΝΙ, and on the right, facing downward, ΚΗ. The hair of the figure is quite voluminous and reaches the middle of the neck, where it ends in a wide foldover. A wide, triangular, beaded band is visible over the forehead. Large eyes, straight thick nose, mouth closed. Long, triangular neck rising from the oval, almost angular opening of the dress-chiton. The front edge of the dress has relief decoration.
Comments and Comparanda
Pendants of this type are quite numerous, particularly in the Syro-Palestinian region. They are mainly made of yellowish glass, and less often of dark blue and olive-green.
They have been grouped by Dan Barag (Barag, Dan. 2001. “Stamped Pendants.” In Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: Beads and Other Small Objects, ed. Maud Spaer, 76–176. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., Barag, Dan. 2002. “Late Antique and Byzantine Glass.” In Reflections on Ancient Glass from the Borowski Collection, Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, ed. Robert S. Bianchi, Birgit Schlick-Nolte, G. Max Bernheimer, and Dan Barag, 305–328. Mainz: Zabern., pp. 307–308) into three types according to the shape of the suspension loop: (a) flattened in front, vertical (dated between the mid-fourth century and the early fifth century); (b) heavy and rounded, convex, not always vertical (dated to the late fourth to mid-fifth centuries); and (c) large annular on an irregularly shaped disk (dated between the second half of the fifth into the early sixth century). On the basis of the iconography of their ornament, six types have been discerned: (1) classical Greek themes, (2) biblical themes, (3) Jewish symbols, (4) Christian symbols, (5) animals, and (6) miscellaneous motifs. The three pendants in the Getty collection belong to the first type in terms of the shape of the loop, the size, and the quality and the theme of the stamped decoration. For other comparanda, see two medallions from Hauran in yellowish glass (Zouhdi, Bachir. 1977. “Médaillions pendentifs en verre du Musée National de Damas.” In Annales du 7e Congrès de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre, Berlin-Leipzig, 15–21 août 1977, 51–65. Liège: Ed. du Secrétariat général., p. 56, no. d, fig. 4:2). Several medallions from unknown findspots have been published: Stern, Eva Marianne. 2001. Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE–700 CE: Ernesto Wolf Collection. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz., p. 380, no. 213; Barag, Dan. 2001. “Stamped Pendants.” In Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: Beads and Other Small Objects, ed. Maud Spaer, 76–176. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., p. 179, no. 356; Barag, Dan. 2002. “Late Antique and Byzantine Glass.” In Reflections on Ancient Glass from the Borowski Collection, Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem, ed. Robert S. Bianchi, Birgit Schlick-Nolte, G. Max Bernheimer, and Dan Barag, 305–328. Mainz: Zabern., p. 314, LA-17.
Provenance
1978, Ira Goldberg (Beverly Hills, California), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1978
Bibliography
Lees-Causey, Catherine. 1983. “Some Roman Glass in the J. Paul Getty Museum.” J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 11: 153–157., pp. 154–155.
Exhibitions
None