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Catalogue

92. Mosaic Bowl

Accession Number 2003.250
Dimensions H. 3.9, Diam. rim 9.0, Diam. base 4.2 cm; Wt. 48.83 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or possibly eastern Mediterranean
Material Opaque white and translucent grayish 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 splayed, circular base-ring formed by a single revolution of an applied coil of glass.

The vessel is made of discoid mosaic tesserae, in florets of the following types: (1) a central white rod surrounded in turn by a purple and another purple with two rows of white rods in it, 10 in the interior row and 20 in the exterior; (2) a central greenish-gray rod surrounded by six trapezoidal petals outlined in white, set in a purple layer.

One tessera on the rim, as a decorative highlight: thin, wavy, yellow stripes in a thick, translucent green layer. The coil of the base is ribbon mosaic comprising parallel layers of white and purple glass.

Comments and Comparanda

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

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

, p. 118, no. 316; p. 119, plate no. 316.

Exhibitions

Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2005–2006; 2007; 2009–2010)

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