578. Window Pane

Condition

Fully preserved. Most of the surface is covered in a layer of iridescence of a pinkish hue.

Description

A shallow, convex disk made of greenish glass with many large bubbles.

Fire-polished rim. The piece is slightly lopsided and cannot stand on its own. It was probably a windowpane. A difference in the weathering on both sides at the circumference forms a band (W. approx. 1.1 cm), probably indicating the area that was covered by plaster or was inset in a wood or stone frame. The increased thickness and consequent sturdiness also supports the interpretation of the piece as a windowpane. A circular scar of a solid pontil (1.5 × 1.3 cm) can be seen on the convex underside.

Comments and Comparanda

Circular windowpanes of various diameters were already in use in the sixth century CE (Foy 2005a, p. 112; Nenna 2005, pp. 125–126) and continued to be used in the Islamic world (Foy 2005b; Foy 2005c; Hadad 2005, pp. 30, 49, 63) as well as in the Byzantine Empire (Ousterhout 1999, pp. 151–154; Antonaras and Ricci 2022, pp. 352–353), practically unaltered. The plain rim of this disk, though, may be an indication of an earlier date, before the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries, when a folded rim becomes the rule for windowpanes.

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

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 200, no. 556.

Exhibitions

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