84. Cameo Glass Flask

Condition

Rim is missing; small areas show weathering.

Description

Flaring rim, lip not preserved; fine cylindrical neck widening toward ovular body; flat, mildly convex bottom.

On the body, the following scene from left to right: A naked boy with a garland in his hands approaches an altar surmounted by a seated figure of the god Thoth as a baboon wearing moon disk; on the base of the altar is a figure of a crouching ibis (another animal associated with the god Thoth) with a moon disk over its head. Another naked boy with flying cloak holds up a curved object, possibly a torch, before a horned altar with a flame on it. On the base of the altar is carved a uraeus—a rearing cobra and sun disk—a symbol of royalty and divine authority in Egypt. In front of the right side of the altar is a standing figure of a pharaoh wearing a striped nemes headdress, the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and a pleated kilt. He is holding a rnpt sign (notched palm branch) in the right hand—a symbol of time and in this context regnal years, i.e., a long reign promised by the gods—and nw-pot in the left, which is a type of vessel used by Egyptians for religious offerings. Behind him stand an obelisk with indecipherable hieroglyphs (from top to bottom on the shaft: circle enclosing a dot [Ra symbol], scarab with spread wings, an eye with its brow, a snake, a spindle-like object, an angle, and a falcon; on the base in a horizontal band: two sloping lines, a circle, three vertical lines, and walking legs) and a twisted tree with two leafy branches. On the mildly convex bottom is a five-petaled rosette surrounded by eight triangular, serrated sepals that extend to the straight line that forms the groundline of the figural composition that extends around the body.

Comments and Comparanda

The Egyptian-looking decoration is not unique among cameo glass objects (Roberts et al. 2010, pp. 54–55, nos. 20–23, 64; van Aerde 2013), and belongs to a well-known genre of artistic scenes depicted in that period, with which the Italian clientele apparently was well-acquainted and wished to acquire. It has been plausibly proposed that the elements that compose this puzzling scene—a pharaoh, an obelisk, and a statue of the god Thoth as a baboon—are not depicting a particular scene, but rather serve as decorative Egyptian images understandable by Romans of the Augustan era, when Egyptian art objects, like statues and even obelisks, were brought to and displayed around Rome (Bianchi and Fazzini 1988, pp. 218–219; Wight and Swetnam-Burland 2010; Cole 2018).

In terms of its shape, the flask belongs to the usually colorful free-blown flasks of Isings form 6 (Isings 1957, p. 22), which is dated to the very early first century CE. A very close parallel is known from Canton Ticino, Switzerland, dated to the period 10–30 CE (Biaggio-Simona 1991, vol. 1, p. 337, and vol. 2, no. 16.2.029). It is also close to De Tommaso’s type 5 (De Tommaso 1990, pp. 39–40), dated to the Julio-Claudian period. Furthermore, a fragment of a similarly shaped cameo flask is in the Corning Museum of Glass (Whitehouse 1997a, p. 56, no. 57).

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. 56, 61, fig. 38.

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)