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Catalogue

91. Mosaic Bowl

Accession Number 2003.249
Dimensions H. 4.0, Diam. rim 9.0, Diam. base 4.1 cm; Wt. 66.89 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or possibly eastern Mediterranean
Material Opaque red and yellow and translucent greenish and purple glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Made from a polychrome disk-shaped blank assembled from fused-together lengths and sections of round mosaic canes; cast, applied base-ring, rotary polished
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Condition

Fully preserved; mended and filled.

Description

The bowl has a flaring lip; conical, cyma recta body; and flat bottom. It stands on a tall, circular base-ring formed by a single revolution of an applied coil of glass.

The vessel is made of discoid mosaic tesserae, with florets of the following types: (1) a central red rod surrounded by a layer of translucent green with ten yellow rods in it; (2) a central red rod surrounded by a spiraling layer of almost two revolutions of trapezoidal translucent green compartments outlined in yellow, which is surrounded in turn by a purple layer. The coil of the base is ribbon mosaic comprising parallel layers of yellow and greenish glass.

Comments and Comparanda

For the production technique, see and comments on cat. 86. On cast, angular vessels, see comments on cat. 89.

Provenance

1929, Baurat Schiller [sold, Sammlung Baurat Schiller, Rudolph Lepke’s Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlin, March 19, 1929, lot 588]; Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948 (Berlin, Germany); 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

, p. 118, no. 315; p. 119, plate no. 315.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2009–2010)

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