85. Cameo Glass Fragment, Probably of a Vessel

Condition

Fragment.

Description

On the front side of the preserved fragment, a male head can be seen. The head is in profile turned to the right; he is clean-shaven and wearing a laurel wreath, the upper part of the head covered with short, slightly curled locks of the Julio-Claudian style. The back side is flat, with some hardly noticeable undulation.

Comments and Comparanda

The fragment is flat and the back side shows no indication of a curve, merely some hardly noticeable undulation. If indeed from a vessel, it must have been a large or wide vessel. Compared to the majority of cameo vessels or gems, this fragment is very thin (0.2–0.3 cm). Cameo vessels are usually thicker (compare cat. 82 [Th. 0.7 cm]), although thinner (0.3–0.5 cm) vessels do appear occasionally (e.g., Whitehouse 1997a, pp. 58–62, nos. 60–68). If not from a vessel it could be part of a cameo gem or medallion, although these are also thicker (e.g., Whitehouse 1997a, pp. 42–43, nos. 37–38, medallions 1.1 and 0.9 cm thick, respectively; Roberts et al. 2010, p. 72, no. 62, 0.6 cm). For another cameo glass gem in the Getty Museum, see Spier 1992, p. 158, no. 436, 81.AN.172.

Provenance

1996, Barbara Fleischman and Lawrence Fleischman, American, 1925–1997 (New York, New York), donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996

Bibliography

True and Hamma 1994, p. 356, cat. no. 270.

Report 98–99, p. 69.

Exhibitions

None