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Catalogue

95. Fragment of a Mosaic Vessel with Geometrical Motif

Accession Number 76.AF.70.21
Dimensions L. 1.6, W. 1.2, Th. 0.4–0.3 cm; Wt. 1.60 g
Date Late first century BCE–early first century CE
Production Area Italy or Egypt
Material Translucent green and blue and opaque white, yellow, and red glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Made from a polychrome disk-shaped blank assembled from fused-together lengths and sections of round mosaic canes; slumped; rotary polished
View in Collection

Condition

Body fragment; three sides are straight, probably cut in modern times.

Description

The fragment gets thinner toward the curved end, where the body of the vessel was starting to rise. It consists of two types of rectangular tesserae: (1) heavily distorted, eight-petaled green rosette outlined in yellow, set in red; (2) eight-petaled blue rosette outlined in white, set in blue. On the back side, heavily distorted, are the same two types of tesserae.

Comments and Comparanda

For the historical and technological evolution of mosaic glass in Pharaonic Egypt and the Roman Empire, see comments on cat. 86, as well as , pp. 65–66, 68–71; . On different classes of Roman mosaic glass vessels, see , pp. 247–262. On Composite Mosaic Vessels of different shapes present in the Getty collection, with comments and parallels: on carinated dishes, see comments on cat. 86; on carinated bowls, see comments on cat. 89; on non-carinated bowls with different types of motifs, see comments on cat. 123 (spotted), cat. 125 (reticella), cat. 127 (striped mosaic), and cat. 129 (checkerboard).

Small fragments of mosaic glass vessels were sold in Rome between 1860 and 1920, where they were found, and most of the now-known examples that eventually ended up in museum collections were acquired there in that period. At the time, art dealers polished them to renew their bright, colorful appearance and often placed them in gold cardboard frames, giving them the appearance of a valuable object, even a jewel or a gem, like cats. 87, 109, and 129 (, pp. 243–244). The fragments in the collection are quite diverse, representing different classes of mosaics made with round florets and shorter and longer stripes of glass in many colorful combinations. In addition to the vessel fragments, in the collection there are several flat pieces (cats. 453–496) that were originally formed as plaques or bands, to be used as decorative features of wall revetments and/or on movable objects such as furniture, caskets, or musical instruments; these have geometric, floral, maritime, and anthropomorphic (including theatrical masks) motifs, on which see comments on cat. 449.

Provenance

By 1976, Bruce McNall, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976

Bibliography

Unpublished

Exhibitions

None