Late Roman, 4th – 5th century A.D.

Glass

H: 11.5 cm – D: 11.0 cm

Serial: 20472

The variety of shapes and color, the combination of techniques involved with the modeling of Roman glass vessels is impressive. This particular one belongs to the category of vessels popular in Roman Empire during its late period. The preferred decoration consists of the extensive use of molten glass thread which form an openwork placed against the vessel’s wall.

The jar has an ample globular body and short neck with the wide rim; the thick thread was tacked from the rim to shoulder in a continuous horizontal zigzag pattern around the entire circumference. This technique is the transformation of shaping and attaching the glass handles; the multiplied handles constitute “a collar” between shoulder and rim. The effect is strong because the three-dimensional baroque structure receives also the coloristic treatment: the thick dark thread contrasts with the light color of the body and the neck.

PROVENANCE

Acquired on the US art market, 2009

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANTONARAS A., Fire and Sand, Ancient Glass in the Princeton University Art Museum, New Haven, London, 2012, pp. 205-206, nos. 302-304.

AUTH S. H., Ancient Glass at the Newark Museum from the Eugene Schaefer Collection of Antiquities, Newark, 1976, p. 141, no. 179.`

Glass of the Ancient World: The Ray Winfield Smith Collection, Corning, 1957, 160-161, no.330.

WHITEHOUSE D., Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, vol. 2, New York, 1997, pp. 161-162, nos. 686-687.