82. Cameo Glass Skyphos

Condition

Stem and base missing; body reassembled from fragments; chips missing from the broken edges, from the ends of the handle flanges, and from various parts of the figural scene.

Description

Two-handled cup (skyphos), formerly on stem and foot. Rim rounded in the interior, with wheel-cut groove below the rim in the interior and another on the exterior; body with slightly convex sides that taper toward the flat, faintly convex bottom. Wheel-cut stem, broken just below bottom of cup. Two vertical circular handles, attached to rim and to body at its maximum diameter, with horizontal finger-rests, a nick partway down the outside of the curve, and long, downward-curving thumb rests.

A continuous thick, straight groundline on the lower part just above the transition to the bottom and the wheel-cut groove below the lip delineate the space on both sides of the vessel on which two religious scenes rendered in white cameo are evolving. These scenes illustrate the participation of Ariadne in rituals of the Dionysiac cult, and perhaps of Cybele. The scenes are separated by the two handles. Below each handle is a mask of a Silenus.

Side A: On the left side is a tree with broad leaves, probably a fig tree, of which two branches—one divides in its upper part into two—extend up and behind a naked satyr, who is moving in three-quarter profile to the left, looking in profile to the right. The satyr is holding in his right hand a pan-pipe (syrinx), and in his left hand, resting against his forearm, a Bacchic crooked staff (pedum). At the center of this side, seated on a seven-layered rocky outcrop, is a female figure, identified as Ariadne, the Cretan princess who was abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos; Dionysos discovered her there and married her. She is shown in three-quarter profile to the left, head in profile to the right, her right arm thrown over her head and touching her forehead, her left arm vertical, with her hand flat on the rock on which she sits, torso naked, lower limbs covered with a drape that is also drawn up over her right arm. Behind her is a female figure, a maidservant standing in profile to the left, head garlanded, torso naked, lower limbs draped; her arms are extended to offer Ariadne a rectangular or circular object covered with layers of cloth, identified as a sacred basket (liknon), perhaps depicting the revelation of the Bacchic cult mysteries. On the right side, a tree with tightly narrow leaves growing vertically upward, probably a nut tree, closes the scene.

Side B: On the left side is a tree with broad leaves, probably a fig tree, and two branches, one of which—divided in its upper part into two—extends up and above a female figure, identified as Ariadne, in profile to the right, her right arm raised holding a phiale, a large hemispherical bowl, to her mouth, her left arm extended downward, with hand resting on the rim of a krater, torso naked, lower limbs draped. At the center of the side, a naked male satyr stands in three-quarter profile to the right, garlanded head turning back in profile to the left, arms raised to hold and play the lyre he holds in front of him, legs apart, with weight resting on his left foot and the toes of his right foot on the groundline. Next is a pillar surmounted by a figure seated on a throne, with a phiale in its right hand and a tympanum in its left, identified with the goddess Cybele; the pillar is crossed by branches of a tree, implying a rustic shrine—as do the trees that frame the entire scene. In front of the tree and pillar is a male figure in three-quarter profile to the left, identified as Dionysos, perhaps seated on layered rock, his right arm extended, seemingly putting an almond-shaped pinch of incense onto the flaming altar in front of the pillar and next to him, his left arm bent, a pyxis with incense in his left hand, lower limbs draped; a nut tree, or possibly laurel, with tightly bunched leaves arranged vertically, and with trunk and branches, stretches up behind the seated figure and in front of the column.

On the iconographical interpretation of the scenes on the skyphos, see Goldstein et al. 1982, p. 15, no. 8; p. 99, no. 4; Harden et al. 1987, pp. 68–69, no. 31 (entry by D. Whitehouse); Simon 1999, pp. 89–96; Wight 2003, pp. 36–40.

Comments and Comparanda

Glass cameo objects constitute one of the most opulent groups of Roman glassware, which imitate multilayered and multicolored natural stone such as agate and onyx. They are made by casting, probably in a mold, one or more layers of bright, opaque glass over a dark translucent ground, which in some cases was then free-blown (e.g., cat. 84). (For a multicolored fragment of a crater, see Roberts et al. 2010, p. 50, no. 10.) The most popular color combination is translucent dark blue body with opaque white overlay. Translucent dark purple (e.g., cat. 85), green, and brown were also used occasionally for the underlying layer, while very rarely opaque red, opaque green, light blue, translucent purple, and brown were used for the overlying layers. The figures on the outer layer were generated in intaglio on the inside of the plaster mold, or parts of the outer layer were removed, creating bright low-relief decoration on a dark background. The cameo technique was used for the production of sumptuous tableware, such as drinking and serving vessels, as well as flasks, inlays, medallions, and gems. This was a short-lived fashion that lasted from the late first century BCE to the early first century CE, and the production is likely placed in Italy, probably in Rome. Technically different cameos see a revival in the fourth century CE (Whitehouse 1991, pp. 19–32; Lierke 2009, pp. 62–72).

Provenance

By 1962–1985, Ernst Kofler, 1899–1989, and Marthe Truniger, 1918–1999 (Lucerne, Switzerland); 1985, Private Collection [sold, Ancient Glass: Formerly the Kofler-Truniger Collection, Christie’s, London, March 5–6, 1985, lot 150, to the J. Paul Getty Museum through Robin Symes, Limited]

Bibliography

JGS 1962, p. 140, no. 5.

Kunsthaus Zurich 1964, p. 47, no. 456; plate 37.

Jucker 1965, p. 46; plates 15, 16.2, .4; figs. 5, 6.

3000 Jahre Glaskunst, p. 33, full page ill.; p. 72, no. 226, ill.

Goldstein et al. 1982, p. 15, no. 8; p. 23, fig. 4; p. 99, cat. no. 4.

Christie’s 1985, lot 150.

Fischer 1985, p. 398.

JPGM Acquisitions 1985, pp. 194–95, no. 65.

JGS 1986, p. 98, no. 2.

Harden et al. 1987, pp. 55, 83–84; cat. no. 36.

Sotheby’s 1987, p. 64.

Bianchi and Fazzini 1988, pp. 218–219, no. 111.

Painter and Whitehouse 1990b, pp. 150–153, cat. no. A8, figs. 111–115.

Whitehouse 1991, p. 25, no. 13.

Grimm 1998, fig. 145.

Lierke 2009, p. 68, ill.

Wight and Swetnam-Burland 2010.

Lierke 2011, p. 77, fig. 15; p. 91, fig. 27a.

Wight 2011, pp. 55, 60, fig. 37.

Swetnam-Burland 2015, pp. 56–57, fig. 1.20, plate 3.

Sofroniew 2015, pp. 108–109, fig. 84.

Spier et al. 2018, p. 176, no. 176, ill.

Masterpieces JPGM: Antiquities, p. 104.

JPGM Handbook 3rd ed., p. 55.

JPGM Handbook 4th ed., p. 55.

JPGM Handbook 6th ed., p. 55.

JPGM Handbook 7th ed., p. 48, ill.

JPGM Handbook Antiquities 1st ed., p. 206.

JPGM Handbook Antiquities rev. ed., p. 214.

Exhibitions

Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World (Los Angeles, 2018)

Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome (Malibu, 2007–2008; Corning, 2008)

Ancient Art from the Permanent Collection (Los Angeles, 1999–2004)

Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies (Brooklyn, 1988–1989; Detroit, 1989; Munich, 1989)

Glass of the Caesars (Corning, 1987; Mainz, 1988)

Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern (Zurich, 1964)