For all the rich hues glass could take in Antiquity, sometimes the colorless, translucent variety is the most impressive. This astonishing amphora from the 2nd century B.C. Is perhaps the most impressive of all. It’s a whopper at well over half a meter tall, and its size and lack of color were innovative flexes making
Elegant in shape and all too delicate in construction, this perfume bottle (unguentarium) shows boudoir scenes executed in cameo glass – the exceptionally fancy technique thought to date to the Augustan period. Here the festoons, bedding, and two amorous pairs of different flavours (the homoerotic one is shown here) are crisply carved into a milky
Some things get better with age, and if you enjoy the surface of this delectable little (3.7 x 3.3 cm) gem in Cleveland perhaps you’d agree Roman glass is one of them. Vessels and gems made in the cameo glass technique were in vogue only for about half a century beginning in Augustus’ reign. More
This exuberant glass pavement (approximately 30 x 30 square centimeters) is a psychedelic hodgepodge of glass inlays in a variety of techniques. It’s a rare survival of the ‘opus sectile‘ (coming from Latin ‘to cut’) method entirely of glass. Set within a greenish glass-paste matrix, a number of inquisitive birds perch and nibble, their vibrant
Unusually large for surviving glass works (just over 30 cm tall), and in the most luxurious mode possible, this pointed amphora in cameo glass is a wonder to behold (and best beheld with a strong light to illuminate its dark blue body). The lavish decoration is appropriate for a vessel shape intended to store wine:
With a smattering of exceptions, the names of ancient artists are largely lost to us and likely most toiled in relative obscurity in their own times. Particularly so, the producers of ‘minor’ arts…which brings me to this lovely blue cup. Because the cup bears an inscription, “Ennion made me”, within a prominently placed tabula ansata
Well, I was hankering for a zany, special sort of glass object, and this one in Torino fits the bill beautifully. A small glass medallion (under 5 cm diameter), it encases the haunting portrait of a young woman in gold leaf. There are very few portraits of this kind known (under a dozen authentic ones),
This is a deeply weird object in every way possible. And as mysterious as it may be, the two core lessons are: don’t antagonise Dionysos and don’t forget the power of light. In a previous post, I discussed the Trivulzio cup, a gorgeous, more straightforward cage cup with translucent and blue glass with an inscribed
‘Sandwich glass’ always strikes me as a slightly hilarious way to describe the most luxurious and refined type of ancient glass. But it’s actually a great description of a hugely sophisticated technique that was perfected in the Hellenistic period. Shallow and cups, seem to have especially sought after but only available to the fabulously wealthy.