Two graduate students arrived fresh on the scene in 1981-82: Victoria Weston (History of Art and Japanese Studies) and Laurie McCoy (Classical Art and Archaeology). I am most grateful to them for their cheerful industriousness through a long winter of snowy forays to the Graduate Library. Laurie McCoy saw the project through to its completion, collaborating with me on research. In addition, Prof. John D'Arms, Ms. Norma Jenkins (Research Librarian at the Corning Museum of Glass), Dr. Aileen Gatten, and Prof. Charles Witke have provided indispensable help on specific scholarly problems -- from the topography of Puteoli, to Sino-Roman relations in antiquity and obscure Chinese rhapsodists, to vexing questions of mirrors and metaphors, Isidorus, and Alexander's glass submarine.
I should like to thank Paul Cunningham for assistance with the grant proposal for the exhibition; and the National Endowment for the Arts (a Federal Agency) and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts of The University of Michigan for their support of the project. Special thanks go to Ginny and Cruse Moss, to the Department of Antiquities of Jerusalem, to The Corning Museum of Glass (especially Sidney M. Goldstein), and to The Toledo Museum of Art (especially Kurt Luckner) for their generous cooperation as lenders of objects for the exhibition. [These items are not illustrated in this Internet "installation." For a wide variety of illustrations and a fuller discussion please refer to the original cataloque of the exhibition.]
As always, the staff at University Publications Office and the staff and volunteers at the Museum have made a tremendous effort to assist with every aspect of Wondrous Glass. Individually, they are: Carol Hellman and Carol Ann Taylor, editor and designer of the catalogue, respectively; Ken Pokorny, photographer of this very difficult material; Amy Rosenberg, assisted by Susanna Pauli, in the painstaking conservation and cleaning of the objects; Lisa Vihos and Rachel Vargas for typing and many related jobs; Pamela Reister, as registrar in charge of the myriad tasks attendant upon a loan exhibition; Diane Brown, for her administration of accounts, her work on publicity, her expert typing, and her responsible, happy efficiency on all conceivable matters; and finally, David Slee -- the designer and technician who has turned ideas into visible realities through a chain of encounters with wood, plexiglass, and light.
Margaret Cool Root
Assistant Curator of Collections
1982
Reflecting the traditional strengths of our collections more generally, the ancient glass in the Museum is essentially and specifically Roman glass. That is to say, it is glass produced within the Greater Mediterranean sphere from the first century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. (We shall justify this chronological definition shortly).
The single most important group of glass in the Kelsey Museum is that from Karanis in the Egyptian Fayoum (west of the Delta). In 1924 The University of Michigan purchased the collection of Dr. D. L. Askren (a long-time resident of the Fayoum). This corpus consisted of about 180 vessels which are universally acknowledged to have come from the site at Karanis, long ravaged by the area's "sebbakh" diggers (fertilizer entrepreneurs). In that same year, The University began excavations at the site which lasted until 1935. These excavations yielded hundreds of complete vessels as well as thousands of fragments. Most of this material came to the Kelsey Museum as a result of divisions with the Egyptian Government.
The houses at Karanis had undergone successive occupation from the late third century B.C. up to the sixth century A.D. Thus, the glass uncovered there spans the Ptolemaic period through the period of the Roman Empire and the "late antique." With the exception of a small amount of luxury-ware imported from Alexandria -- that great Delta cosmopolis and center of artistic endeavor -- the quantities of glass from Karanis seem to have been made in the town itself. The stratigraphy of the site is not without its problems. Furthermore, through the correlative analysis of dated coins and papyri found in direct association with the glass we can only establish the fact that, indeed, specific vessels were in use during the periods defined by the dated material. Establishing dates for the manufacture of the glass is another matter entirely. Because the glass at Karanis was highly prized and was passed on from one generation to another, contextual associations -- while of great interest in other ways -- can be misleading for the archaeologist bent on fixing precise developmental schemata for ancient glass. In 1936, D. B. Harden published a monumental catalogue of the glass excavated at Karanis in the first five seasons (1924/25-1928/29). Fully aware of the difficulties and limitations alluded to above, Harden produced a work of scholarship which remains one of the key building blocks for the construction of a history of Roman glass. The material deserves continuing scholarly reappraisal in order to integrate it with discoveries made in other areas during the last half-century. By the same token, the publication of a scholarly catalogue of the Karanis glass from the later years of the campaign is a priority item on the Museum's agenda.
This exhibition does not, of course, pretend to accomplish either of these long-term goals in a systematic way -- even though we have considered recent scholarship and have made use of many previously unpublished glasses in the Museum. Rather, our aim here is to suggest the cultural significance of glass in the world of Rome from the period of Rome's ascendancy as a unifying and dominating world force to the period when historical events had set civilization upon a course of cultural regionalism. This expansive temporal parameter for the "Roman" period enables us to view the material evidence as part of a humanistic continuum that certainly did not unravel with the conversion of Constantine or the rise of Byzantium. So too geographically, this world of Rome that we wish to describe through its glass is more extensive than the traditional boundaries of power would suggest. It embraced the vastness of Asia beyond the strict confines of imperial domain -- as initiatives of trade and diplomacy linked West with East across the land and maritime Silk Routes.
The glass produced in this orb of interconnectedness captured the imaginations of contemporary poets, painters, and students of the natural sciences. Their testimony supplies valuable documentation of the forms and uses of glass. Furthermore, the paintings and discussions of glass left to us by the world of Rome reawaken in us a sense of the magical and contradictory essences of glass: its ability to be at once either heavy or light; sturdy or fragile; opaque or translucent; colorful or colorless; refracting or reflecting. Thus, the story of glass we shall offer here juxtaposes actual antiquities with the ancients' perceptions of them.
In view of this aim, the glass from Karanis is truly a treasure for it was
recovered from the homes or ordinary people: unearthed along with their money,
their tax rolls, their cult objects, cooking pots, and toys. Some of the glass
was found tucked away in hiding places, such as the two Alexandrian goblets
stacked one atop the other in a hole in a window sill covered by a ceramic pot
lid (Pl. 1; XIII:13). These goblets were created at least 100 years before the
period of their final use in the house. St. Augustine's words ring true
here:
Are we not frailer than if we were of glass? For even if glass is fragile, yet if cared for, it lasts a long time, and you find grandsons and great-grandsons drinking out of the cups of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Such fragile objects have been preserved throughout the years.And indeed, it is as if the excavation photo documenting the discovery of the two heirlooms had been staged deliberately to contrast the fragility of the flesh with the durability of well-tended antiques!
Somewhat later, the molding technique was developed, whereby glass chips or
molten glass were packed or forced into a mold and then fused. After a molded
vessel was annealed (cooled slowly in a special chamber of the glass furnace),
it was often fround and polished in order to refine the rim and any other rough
edges. One typical shape for molded vessels of the late Hellenistic and early
Roman periods (c. 150-50 B.C.) was the so-called pillar-molded bowl(NEED PHOTO
FOR THIS). Here exterior ribs radiate up from the base, stopping abruptly near
the rim to allow a smooth margin around the circumference. This type is
ubiquitous; and it attests to the free and rapid exchange of ideas in
glass-making throughout the Greater Mediterranean sphere. Fragmentary examples
in the collections of the Kelsey Museum range from Seleucia, to Karanis, to
Puteoli (II: 7 a,c,d). The site of Tel Anafa in Israel (recently excavated
jointly by the Universities of Michigan and Missouri) has provided critical
information on the chronological limits of these bowls within the Roman period
(II:7b).
Around 50 B.C. a revolutionary development occurred in the history of
glass-making: the invention of free-blowing. This landmark achievement did
almost certainly take place in Syro-Palestine even if the basic discovery of
glass did not. Perhaps the significance attached to the Syro-Palestine
glasshouses because of the discovery there of the blowing technique is at the
root of the ancients' tendency to attribute to Phoenicia the invention of the
actual material as well.
The free-blowing process required a continuously fired furnace. A wad of molten
glass was gathered on the end of a long metal pipe. By blowing air through this
pipe, the molten "gather" became a bubble of glass that could be
manipulated with tools and reheated periodically for easier working. After the
application of elements such as base-pedestals, a metal rod ("pontil
rod") was thrust onto the bottom of the vessel and the top was cracked off
the blow-pipe. Then, with further reheating, the top of the vessel received its
final shaping; and elements such as handles and decorative trails were applied
from a molten gather (Fig. 1). Vessels produced in this way often preserve a
scar, or "pontil mark," on the base from the removal of the pontil rod.
When complete, the vessel was placed in the annealing chamber of the furnace.
With the development of free-blowing, the rather staid uniformity and refinement
of cast vessels often gave way to directives of speed, spontaneity, and formal
ingenuity. Less architectural in profile, blown vessels of antiquity often
achieved a graceful, thin-walled elegance (Pl. 5) or a loose, plastically
volumetric vigor (Cover illustration). Depending upon the quality of the raw
glass, the finished product might yield a bubbled, grainy texture or a compact
and pure one. The iridescence seen on much ancient glass was not a deliberate
effect created by the glass-maker. It was caused by devitrification (chemical
decomposition) due primarily to prolonged contact of the objects with moist and
acidic soil in their archaeological contexts. Paradoxically, vessels displaying
this opaline quality are coveted by many collectors of antiquities because of
their aesthetic appeal; and the effect is frequently imitated by modern
glass-artists. Since the majority of glass and artifacts in the collections of
the Kelsey Museum come from Egypt, with its dry climate, relatively few of them
illustrate this phenomenon. They appear for the most part as they were intended
to look some 1500 years ago.
It is telling that the earliest known ancient representation of glass-blowing
has been found not on an object from Phoenicia, but on an object from Split,
Yugoslavia: a decorated clay lamp datable to the first century B.C.; and, while
Syro-Palestine and Egypt maintained their traditional importance as glass-making
centers, glasshouses were already in operation in Cologne, Germany (to offer one
example) by the middle of the first century B.C. Cologne rapidly developed a
major industry which was continuously responsive to trends set further east,
while also responsive to local predilections. Until well into the fifth centry
A.D., when effects of the political dissolution of Empire began to be reflected
perceptibly on the level of material culture, there was a remarkable unity in
glass-making across the entire extent of Rome's purview. Not only did glass
products travel (both as objects of intrinsic trade value and as
receptacles for liquid commodities [Pls. 9 and 10]), but so also did
glass-makers. This is clear from a variety of textual, epigraphical, and
artifactual evidence.
Pl. 9. Ungentaria and a flat-bottomed bottle flask
Within a few hundred years from the invention of free-blowing, glass-blowers had
developed almost all the major decorative techniques which are used by glass
artists even to the present day. Thus, in essence, the glass of the Roman Empre
provides a telescoped view of the techniques of art in glass generally, from
antiquity until the emergence of the studio movement in our own era. The one
major exception was the concept of stained glass windows, not envisioned until
the Middle Ages.
Pl. 11. (NEED PHOTO OF) A mold-blown bottle III:11
Pl. 12. Two-handled vessels (a)XV:5; (b)XV:1; (c)XV:10 (d)XV:2
Although free-blowing did not offer the advantages of mass-produced uniformity
that mold-blowing allowed, the decorative potentials of the technique were
seemingly limitless. While free-blowing a vessel, the glass-maker could achieve
a variety of surface effects by drawing the glass out in thorn-like projections
(Pl. 12b), by pinching it (Pl. 13c), by ribbing it or corrugating it (Pl. 6),
or by indenting it at regular intervals (Pl. 24c and e). Once blown, a vessel
could be decorated with thick or thin threads of molten glass trailed on the
surface to produce simple coil accents, zigzag patterns,
undulating "whisker" trails (Pl. 14a) or complex
sculptural effects. Similarly, blobs of molten glass (usually dark blue)
could be fused onto the vessel surface either in simple chains or in complex
geometric arrangements (Pls. 5a and 24e and f). Decorative glass attachments of
contrasting colors could be fused to the warm glass vessel also. These could be
molded elements such as rosettes, lion-heads, theater masks, and the like (Pl.
16); or they could be free-blown attachments. Applied elements were often set
at the base of the vessel's handle (Fig. 2). Sometimes they were used all over
the vessel's surface, however (Fig. 3).
Pl. 13. Beakers (a)XIII:18; (b)XIII:1; (c)XIII:12
Table jugs
Once cooled, glass vessels could be decorated with cutting techniques performed
with emery-fed wheels of different sizes. Essentially, these techniques
exploited the structural similarities of annealed glass to compactly grained
stone. Undoubtedly, there was a good deal of overlap between artisans who
specialized in gem-carving and those who cut and engraved glass. This is no
where more evident than in glass cameo work. Blanks for glass cameo vessels
were made by casing dark (usually blue) glass with opaque white glass. When
cooled, the exterior surface was cut back to produce figural compositions on
multiple planes which exploited the shading variations made possible depending
upon the degree of thickness or thinness of the reserved white. Cameo glass had
an advantage over cameo carving in shell or stone in that the artisan could
control the placement and relative depth of the contrasting materials in his
blank. Cameo glass was a development emerging from the prosperity of the Pax
Romana of the Augustan period in Rome (27 B.C. - A.D. 14). The technique seems
not to have been practiced in ancient Italy after the first century A.D. Only
thirteen complete cameo vessels are presently known worldwide. Preserved
fragments number only in the hundreds (see IV:8,9,13-15). Dionysiac scenes seem
to have been the favored subject matter for cameo vessels. Epic legends were
also represented (as, on the famous Portland Vase in The British Museum an
enigmatic mythological/epic tale unfolds). Suetonius tells us that the Emperor
Nero (A.D. 54-68) "upset the table and dashed to the floor two favorite
goblets which he called 'Homeric' after the Homeric tales carved upon them."
These goblets were probably cameo-carved. The preciousness of cameo vessels is
suggested by a still life painting from Herculaneum in which a cameo-carved jug
bearing a scene with a horse and rider figures prominently (Frontispiece; for
comparison, IV:15).
Mythological scenes were also engraved into colorless glass vessels.
Alexandria produced a coveted class of this genre during the second century A.D.
Fragmentary examples of this ware from Karanis prove that such glasses must
have been made in Egypt, no doubt at Alexandria, for the inhabitants of
provincial Karanis were not likely to import luxury items from Rome, Cologne, or
Sidon. (See IV:16-18 and 24.) Completely preserved vessels of this type found
in the West document complex captioned figural scenes. Vessels which were
wheel-cut with elaborate designs of facets and grooves were also greatly prized.
Some of these were executed on exquisitely thin glass (IV:19); while others
embellish weighty vessels (IV:6).
In Egypt and the West during the fourth century A.D., a more shallow type of
engraving was popular--with examples from Karanis (such as XI:4) paralleled
impeccably as far away as Cologne. The most famous representatives of this
technique are a series of eight flasks which depict around their bulbous bodies
the topographical landscape of Puteoli, on the Bay of Naples. Of these eight,
four were found in Italy, two in the Iberian Peninsula, one in North Africa, and
one in Cologne. Apparently the bottles were all made at Puteoli -- where there
was a flourishing glass industry. Four of the known vessels (including the Populonia Bottle, which is the only one of the
group housed in a museum of the western hemisphere) preserve dedicatory
inscriptions engraved just below the neck. These personal inscriptions were
undoubtedly engraved at the time of purchase, requested specifically by the
consumer. The scenes on the vases (with their labeling inscriptions) seem, on
the other hand, to be stock types -- although no two are exactly alike.
Puteoli was an important commercial city -- a bustling port serving the
Mediterranean traffic and also exporting a number of local products described by
Pliny in his Natural History. Thus, one could well imagine
businessmen and sailors purchasing vessels such as the Populonia Bottle and
carrying them home as prized souvenirs. Four of the eight flasks include a
representation of a temple and cult statue of the Egyptian god Serapis (a
syncretistic deity who combined concepts of Zeus and Osiris and enjoyed vast
popularity both in Egypt and in Italian port cities during Imperial Roman
times). Conceivably, then, these four flasks at least were purchased more
specifically as souvenirs of cultic pilgrimage to the famous Temple of Serapis
at Puteoli which is well known to us from textual sources. The representations
of Serapis on the glass flasks are quite similar to the image of the god as
presented in a bronze statuette from Karanis which is thought to be a miniature
version of the lost cult statue from the Temple of Serapis at that site
(XVIII:B). Along with an eighteenth century engraving after an ancient wall
painting of Puteoli (Photo Panel 17), the Populonia Bottle and its companion
pieces have provided important documentation for archaeologists concerned with a
study of the topography and social history of Pureoli. For our special
exhibition the Kelsey Museum was especially pleased to feature the Populonia
Bottle because we hold an important collection of Puteolian inscriptions and
related artifacts which provide an intellectual backdrop for this rare
vessel.
On the eastern frontier of Rome's active military purview, massive clear vessels
embellished with deeply cut facets were a specialty.
Up to this point we have discussed decorative techniques of the Roman
glass-maker which essentially exploit the potentials for textural
variation. Nuances of color were, however, equally important qualities of
glass--appreciated and exploited with finesse by glass-makers in the Roman
period. One technique of great versatility in its applications was fused mosaic
work or millefiori, which is an Italian word meaning "1000
flowers." Essentially this technique involves the fusing of colored strips
of glass into a rod from which slices can be cut which will present on their
sliced surfaces the section-pattern of the fused colors of the rod. These
slices of patterned glass were used decoratively as inlays; and they were also
fused into the glass matrices of beads and vessels to form overall patterns
against a dark ground. Sometimes vessels and wall inlays were created using the
millefiori method but placing the various colored and patterned elements in
figural compositions (Pl. 18e). Elaborate landscape effects were achieved to
the extent that it is sometimes difficult to remember that these designs were
executed in fused glass rather than in paint. Interestingly, the vessel
fragment V:31 (Pl. 18e) preserves a section of a mosaic glass landscape of birds
among branches and flowers which is very reminiscent of a Dynastic Egyptian
vignette of birds in an acacia tree seen, for instance, in the Middle Kingdom
tomb painting of Khnemhotpe.
Pl. 18. Decorative inlays of glass (a)VI:19; (b)VII:17; (c)V:23; (d)V:24;
(e)V:31; (f)VII:4
There were many variations on the concept of fused mosaic glass. Gold-band glass
was a luxury ware in which gold leaf and swirls of colored glass were fused
within a sandwich of colorless glass. Emerging out of the tradition was the
technique of gold glass -- where figural representations in gold leaf were
sandwiched in colorless glass. This method of decoration was used effectively
in the late Roman period for the embellishment of cup tondos. These tondos
(such as that on Photo Panel 4) have been preserved as detached elements because
their owners broke them away from the surrounding cup walls in order to imbed
them in the walls of the catacombs as funerary emblems. The appeal of the
gold-glass tondos for this purpose lay in the fact that they were comissioned
pieces, often including a representation of the owner and an inscription giving
his or her name or a salutation. Many of these gold-glass tondos supply
important material for the study of the iconography of Judaism and Christianity
in the first half of the first millennium A.D.
In addition to the traditions of coloristic effects which relied on the fusion
of variously colored glasses, the glass-makers of Roman times also developed the
technique of enamel painting onto the surface of glass vessels. From Karanis,
several fragments have been preserved which provide a sense of the range of
colors used in enamel painting (V:25-26). A cup fragment from The Corning
Museum of Glass demonstrates the dynamic effects possible with this technique
(V:27). A lovely fragment of enamel painted glass in the Kelsey Museum (Pl. 19)
displays an allover pattern of birds in hexagons. It is a late piece, dating
from that interesting period of art in Egypt when Roman traditions were merging
with nascent Islamic decorative modes. The mold-blown vessel fragment
illustrated along with this piece demonstrates that the allover polygon pattern
had already been established in the Roman period. Furthermore, the comparison
suggests the easy interchangability of motifs from one decorative technique in
glass to another.
Pl. 19. (a)A mold-blown vessel fragment V:29; (b)An enamel painted vessel
fragment V:28
Figural inlays of mosaic glass also decorated walls and furnishings. A striking
piece from Karanis (Pl. 18f) preserves a small, exquisitely detailed theater
mask set amid a profusion of flowers. This object is thick and tubular, with a
longitudinal perforation too narrow to recommend the suggestion that it formed
the neck of a long-necked flask. More likely it was a decorative furniture
element. Mosaic glass in bold patterns seems to have been used throughout the
Empire period to decorate walls. The fish and floral motifs seen on Pl. 18 have
close parallels from Italy, while these examples come from Egypt. The fragment
which preserves part of a scene of birds in a tree is, however, definitely from
a vessel, the exterior of which was left in the severe black of the matrix glass
and decorated only with two wheel-cut rings. A larger scale version of this
same motif -- also in fused mosaic technique -- is housed in The Corning Museum
of Glass. The mosaic glass panel in Corning was unquestionably used to face a
wall. Thus, it effectively closes the gap between the traditional wall painting
motif of birds in an acacia tree from Dynastic Egypt (mentioned earlier) and the
appearance of a small-scale version on the interior of a fused mosaic glass
vessel.
Colorful opaque inlays for opus sectile mosaic were found at Karanis (e.g., Pl.
18a). In this technique, the motifs were created from pre-formed shapes fitted
together, such as the rosette shown here, with its central depression intended
for a circular insert of contrasting color. Glass also came to be used in place
of marble for tessera mosaics laid on floors, walls, and vaulted ceilings. The
advantage of glass tesserae over marble one rested primarily with their
consistently glittery quality and their range of colors, which could be produced
on demand. According to Pliny, glass mosaic for walls and ceilings was
introduced at Rome in the late first century B.C.
The myriad uses made of opaque and colorful glass notwithstanding, clear glass
was the most frequently admired in the world of Rome. In Pliny's words:
Dinnerware was sometimes made of glass (Pl. 21). It was especially good for
summer banqueting, according to Propertius.
Pl. 27. A carchesium VIII:1
Painters and poets were also intrigued at this time with the similarities
between glass and water. Still life paintings from Herculaneum depict clear
glass vessels filled with water. In these versions, the glass is transparent,
and the water within is a glimmering surface of light. In a more lyrical way,
the painting from Boscoreale also juxtaposes the qualities of glass and water.
Here, the glass bowl of gruit, painted as if sitting on a window sill, is
adjacent to an idyllic landscape scene in which shimmering-clear brook water
trickles down over the rocks. Only a few years later, Horace was to compose his
ode to the spring of Bandusia; and indeed, poem and painting evoke the same
image of glass:
The black hour of the flaring Dog-Star knows
You also shall become one of the famous fountains,
Pliny speaks of glass mirrors on several occasions. In one instance he is very
explicit on the subject:
Whether the mirror in the Villa of the Mysteries is a very early glass one, or
whether it is an unusual silver one, its powers of reflection transcend the
ordinary and venture off into a zone of allegory which we on the outside looking
in are not yet equipped to comprehend. As we attempt to understand the
sometimes enigmatic world of Rome, glass certainly acts as a mirror on its art,
its poetry, its observations of nature, its cults and social morés, and
its networks of trade and diplomacy. The images we perceive are of a complex,
many-faceted society. And this is as it should be--for these images reflect
back upon the complexities and antitheses inherent in glass itself. Even the
derivation of the Latin work for glass -- "vitrum" has been much
disputed by etymologists beginning with Isidore. He tells us:
And so it is that wondrous glass means many things.
Auth, Susan H.
Goldstein, Sidney M., Rakow, Leanard S., and Rakow, Juliette K.
Grose, David.
Harden, Donald B.
Hayes, John W.
Matheson, Susan B.
Zumeta, Jay J.
Moving from the sublime to the mundane, we come upon hoards of glass which
suggest a more cavalier attitude toward the glorious medium. Something like the
modern custard dish that is usurped for paper clip storage is the rather
dignified beaker which was found inelegantly
stuffed with a crumpled wad of linen and two bone pins. The family
inhabiting house B 121 at Karanis evidently had a distinct penchant for
innovative uses of their glass containers. In the same hoard together with the
beaker was found a
ROMAN GLASS-MAKING
The Background
Glass is formed when sand (silica), soda (alkali), and lime are fused at high
temperatures. The color of the glass can be altered by adjusting the atmosphere
in the furnace and by adding specific metal oxides to the glass "batch"
(such as cobalt for dark blue, tin for opaque white, antimony and manganese for
colorless glass). A venerable legend perpetuated as late as the seventh century
A.D. in the writings of Isidore of Seville gives a suitable miraculous
explanation for the discovery of this elemental--yet truly wondrous--material:
This was its origin: in a part of Syria which is called Phoenicia,
there is a swamp close to Judaea, around the base of Mt. Carmel, from which the
Bellus River arises . . . whose sands are purified from contamination by the
torrent's flow. The story is that here a ship of natron [sodium carbonate]
merchants had been shipwrecked; when they were scattered about on the shore
preparing food and no stones were at hand for propping up their pots, they
brought lumps of natron from the ship. The sand of the shore became mixed with
the burning natron and translucent streams of a new liquid flowed forth: and
this was the origin of glass.
It is not surprising that the ancient authorities thought of Phoenicia as the
birthplace of glass, for the Syro-Palestine region did indeed become a major
center of glass production in antiquity, along with Egypt. However, glass seems
actually to have been "discovered" not in Phoenicia, but in Mesopotamia.
Archaeological research now places the first evidence of true glass there at
around 2500 B.C. At first it was used for beads, seals, and architectural
decoration. Some 1,000 years elapsed before glass vessels are known to have
been produced. Vessels of glass quickly became widespread in the second half of
the second millennium B.C. They were popular not only in Mesopotamia but also
in Egypt and the Aegean. The earliest vessels were core-formed. Opaque, dark
glass in its molten state was wound around a clay core attached to a metal rod.
The skin of hot glass was fashioned with tools in order to shape its external
features. Lighter colored strands of hot glass were then trailed on the surface
and often "dragged" to produce festoon patterns. The pot surface was
marvered (that is, rolled on a smooth, flat surface to produce a level finish).
Finally, it was cooled slowly before the clay core was scraped out of the
hardened vessel. his glassware typically imitated forms originally established
for ceramic, metal, and stone vessels .
Glass of the Roman Empire
The invention of glass-blowing occurred within an historically critical span of
time. In the middle years of the first century B.C., the power of Rome was
fanning out to embrace East and West in a military/political hegemony that would
provide the substructure for expansive trade networks and patterns of cultural
exchange. The blossoming of this internationalism is mirrored in the glass
industry of the Roman Empire. Rome asserted its control over the two dominant
glass-making centers of the late first millennium (Syro-Palestine and Egypt) in
62 and 30 B.C., respectively. Simultaneously, the raw territories of the West
(where glass had no history) were being brought within the orb.
(a) XII:3; (b)XII:4;
(c)XII:11; (d)XII:8;
(e)XII:2; (f)XII:10; (g)XII:1
Pl. 10. Shipping
jugs (a)X:6; (b)X:5Decorative Techniques of Roman Glass
When a glass vessel is being blown, and thus is still in its heated state, its
surface form as well as its shape can be manipulated in many ways. In Roman
times glassmakers took full advantage of the decorative potentials of their
medium. A major by-product of the invention of blowing was the invention of
mold-blowing. Here, a molten gather of glass was blown directly into a mold of
two or more sides. Using this technique, thin-walled vessels with complex
figural or geometric patterns (sometimes including inscriptions) could be
created repeatedly and quickly (NEED PHOTO OF Pl. 11). The logo of the
glass-maker Ennion frequently appears as part of the decorative scheme on his
mold-blown vessels: "Ennion made me. Let the buyer remember him!"
Through mold-blown inscriptions such as these we glimpse something of the
glass-makers themselves. Regrettably, however, inscriptions of glass-makers on
objects other than their products are very rare. For all the interest taken by
Roman authors in the qualities of glass, allusions to the people who created it
are few and far between. One curious story passed down from Pliny to Isidore of
Seville describes the fate of a glass-maker at the court of Tiberius [A.D.
14-37]. The craftsman demonstrated to Caesar that he had invented a means of
tempering glass so that it would not break when dropped but could be hammered
back into shape like a bronze vessel. When the man admitted that he alone knew
of this new treatment for glass, Tiberius had him beheaded "lest when this
became known, gold would be valued like mud, and the values of all metals be
debased." To what could this tale possible refer? It is tempting to
postulate that it has something (however obscure) to do with the invention of
mold-blowing. If not the actual inventor of mold-blowing, Ennion was certainly
one of the very earliest masters of the technique. An Ennion-signed cup found
at Corinth in Greece in a sealed deposit together with a coin of A.D. 37-41 now
provides us with a firm date for the early range of his career. It dovetails
nearly with the setting of this peculiar story in the reign of Tiberius.
Pl. 14. Decanter and
wine glasses (a)IX:3; (b)IX:5; (c)IX:4; (d)IX:8; (e)IX:7; (f)IX:6
Pl. 16. A molded attachment III:22
Whole vessels of forms similar to our fragment excavated at Seleucia have been
found in Japan. One was buried with the Emperor Ankan in A.D. 535. Unlike the
devitrified examples found in the Middle East, the cut-glass vessels exported to
Japan are still in pristine condition--their facets dazzling like so many
mirrors. To date, no actual examples of such western ware have been
found in China; but on a painted silk banner from the Buddhist caves at Tun
Huang, a Boddhisatva holds one of these Partho-Sasanian faceted bowls so that
his hand is visible through the sparkling pale green glass. Thus, this striking
portrayal vividly documents the presence of western glass at a remote outpost
along the Central Asian Silk Route. Further evidence of the Chinese interest in
glass from the world of Rome comes in the form of lyrical poems composed by the
nobility in praise of such luxury vessels which had ". . . braved the perils
of the desert's limitless wastes, / And crossed the towering, precipitous
Pamirs" in order to grace their tables:
Despite the vernal
splendor of its hue,
The tour de force of Roman glass-making was the diatretum technique, whereby a
blank vessel was cut back to reveal a complex design connected only by narrow
reserve struts to the remaining solid wall. One type of diatretum found almost
exclusively in the Rhineland was the cage cup variety carved as a lace network
around the exterior of the vessel (IV:11). Figural diatreta such as the famous
Lycurgus Cup (Photo Panel 3) have a wider distribution. One, depicting the
Lighthouse of Alexandria, was found in a hoard of treasures at Begram, near
modern Kabul in Afghanistan. These figural diatreta are understandably rare.
After Roman times, the technique of diatretum carving in either mode was not
attempted again until the nineteenth century when deliberate imitations of the
Roman cage cups were made in Bavaria. The extraordinary delicacy of the Roman
diatretum vessels suggests the possibility that they were created on a special
commission basis -- the glass-carver traveling with the blank vessel to the
place where the commission originated. It is difficult to imagine how the
Lighthouse diatretum could possible have arrived at Begram intact had it been
carved before the arduous journey from Rome or Alexandria. So delicate and
specialized was the carving process that a law was formulated to deal with the
contingencies of liability for a faulty product, depending upon whether the
blank vessel was inherently flawed or whether the glass-carver's ineptitude
alone was responsible for a ruined effort (Text Panel 4).
Its clarity surpasses the purest winter ice.
There
vessels are produced as though ceramic,
And their rare foreign shapes richly
embellished.
Special Uses for Glass
The coloristic potentials of glass determined its great popularity for special
decorative uses. Fused mosaic glass of marble-like or figural patterns was
employed, for instance, to adorn the surfaces of walls and furniture. When
Pliny describes the Theater of Scaurus, built in 58 B.C. -- where the second
story of the stage building was faced with glass -- he is probably alluding to
mosaic glass made to imitate the swirling grains of marble (Natural
History XXXV.24). Object VII:12 is an example of this type of
architectural embellishment. At Karanis, an interesting variant of the marbling
effect produced by means of the mosaic glass technique is documented by object
VII:13. Here, a strip of colorless glass was laid over a base of stucco which
had been painted to resemble marble. The practice of painting expanses
of wall to imitate various marbles was a common one in Roman times (seen, for
example, in the background of Pl. 28); but overlaying the painted glass zone
with colorless glass, the Karanidian decorator achieved a richly reflective
surface.. . . there is no other material nowadays that is more pliable or
more adaptable, even to painting. However, the most highly valued glass is
colorless and transparent. . . .
Surely the single most remarkable quality of glass is its ability to contain
objects and liquids and yet also to admit light and permit a view from within or
without. Exploiting this property, glass was put to many special uses in Roman
times -- ranging, as we might expect, from the ridiculoius to the sublime.
Glazed windows became quite common during the first century A.D. Fragments of
such glass found at Karanis (Vl:20-21) demonstrate that this early window
glazing was rather thick by our standards. Although it let light in and kept
wind and rain out, it was not transparent -- only translucent. Yet we can gain
a sense of the healthy respect in which the ancients held their ability to
create architectural enclosures that admitted light by reading Paul the
Silentiary's rhapsodic description of Santa Sophia:
(Natural History
XXXVI.66)Thus rises on high the deep bosomed vault, borne above triple voids
below; and through five-fold openings, pierced in its back, filled with thin
plates of glass, comes the morning light scattering sparkling rays.
The Romans made use of the quality of transparency for practical jokes as well
as for truly practical purposes. The false-bottomed wine glass (VI:1) is a
delightful example of the former. Here, the wine was poured through a hole in
the base of the cup. After the wine had filled the entire space between the
false bottom of the cup and the real bottom, the hole was plugged. Thus was
achieved the appearance of a glass brim-full of wine. Another specialized use
of glass at the banquet table is deplored by Seneca:
A mullet does
not seem fresh enough unless it dies in the hands of the banqueter; they are
passed around enclosed in glass jars, and their color is watched while they
expire.
To be sure, the transparency of glass opened up whole new worlds of observation.
Most commonly it was a case of being on the outside looking in--as to observe
the demise of the mullet. In one instance, however, we find glass being
perceived as a useful medium in a situation where the person is on the inside
looking out at the fish. The story of Alexander's exploration of the depths of
the sea in a glass submarine, is of course, fabulous. Yet it has its roots in
the fact that during the period when the legends of Alexander were developing,
glass was coming into its own as a material of virtually unlimited
versatility.
Practical and fanciful vessels of clear glass are illustrated by the spouted
"feeder" bottle and the two fragmentary bird-shaped perfume bottles
shown above. We take for granted the fact that it is a fine thing to be able to
see how much a child or an invalid is drinking, but how marvelous this ability
must have seemed in the early years of glass-blowing!
And drinking cups of glass came in every conceivable shape and size.
At Karanis, conical glass vessels were used both as drinking cups and,
apparently, as oil lamps to be held in fixtures for suspension (NEED PHOTO of
Pl. 24). In his study of the conical vessels from the site, D.B. Harden noted
that many were coated on the interior with an oily residue. He concluded that
they must have been the precursors of the conical glass oil lamps which are well
known from actual examples suspended from metal polycandelon fixtures in mosques
of the Islamic world. Chandeliers of this type are suggested in descriptions by
several Roman authors. The hanging lamps to be seen in Hagia Sophia today must
be very close to the sixth-century originals extolled by Paul the Silentiary:
And beneath each chain he has caused to be fitted silver discs,
hanging circle-wise in the air, round the space in the center of the church.
Thus these discs, pendant from their lofty courses, form a coronet above the
heads of men. They have been pierced too by the weapon of the skillful workman,
in order that they may receive shafts of fire-wrought glass and hold light on
high for men at night.
Wondrous Glass: Images and Allegories
The invention of glass-blowing occurred at a time when thinkers were pondering
the physical phenomena around them. For Lucretius, the properties of matter
were a primary concern -- not least the properties which enable us to see
through glass but not through other materials. He writes:
Though voice may pass unharmed through winding pores in things,
Not long after these thoughts were formulated, glass became a favorite subject
for still life painters eager to explore the qualities of transparence, color,
and light. The earliest still life representations featuring glass vessels all
depict the objects filled with fruit. As a motif, the still life with fruit
goes back to Classical Greek prototypes known to us only through the
descriptions of them by Roman authors. Pliny notes that Zeuxis "produced a
picture of grapes so successfully that birds flew up to the stage-building".
In any case, the thin-walled transparency of blown-glass vessels such as the
carchesium from Toledo (Pl. 27) challenged the painter to capture the optical
qualities of the glass container as well as the image of the fruit within.
yet images demure;
for these are rent asunder -- save it be they stream
Through passages unbent, as those of glass,
Wherethrough all atoms speed
their winged flight.
O spring of Bandusia, more shining than glass,
The imagery associated with glass in the other poems by Horace is sometimes
evocative of darker thoughts. "Indiscreet trust" is "as clear as
glass and ready-charged with secrets to repeat" in Ode 18 of Book I; and
Circe, in contrast to the faithful Penelope, is "like glass" in Ode 17
of Book I. So too, in the visual imagery of Roman art there is a darker side to
the portrayal of one quality of glass, at any rate: Its quality of reflection.
In every culture, mirrors are laden with associations of deep psycho-social
significance. Rome was certainly no exception. A mirror could be any
reflecting surface. In the Pompeiian wall paintings, imagery of reflection
seems always to be of a foreboding kind: Narcissus with his face reflected in
the dark pool of water; Thetis reflected pensively in the gleaming shield of
Achilles; and the enigmatic scene of a woman in the Villa of the Mysteries whose
image is reflected in a hand mirror. This last scene is puzzling on two counts.
The image we are shown in the mirror is not the proper image that would be
depicted if the painter's aim had been to show a rendition of actuality.
Rather, we see a strange scene in which the standing companion looks down into
the mirror; and in the mirror she sees the same view of the seated woman that we
see from outside the picture. Furthermore, the form of the mirror is unusual,
and perhaps unique. It must be either of silver or glass set into a folding,
square "compact."
deserving of sweet wine and flowers,
tomorrow you will be presented with a
kid whose forehead,
swelling with the tips of horns,
gives promise of
both love and battles;
in vain: for he, the offspring of a playful
flock,
shall stain for you your chill waters with his red blood.
no means to touch you:
you
provide pleasing coolness
for tired oxen and the straggling herd.
since I describe the oak
tree planted over your hollowed rocks
from which your chattering waters jump
down.
Silver mirrors have come to be preferred
[to bronze ones]; they were first made by Pasiteles in the period of Pompey the
Great [106-48 B.C.]. But it has recently come to be believed that a more
reliable reflection is given by applying a layer of gold to the back of
glass.
By the seventh century, glass seems entirely to have usurped the
place of metal for mirrors. At least, Isidore of Seville tells us that "no
other material is more fitting for mirrors . . ."
It is called glass [vitrum] because it is, with its clearness,
transparent to the vision [visus]. For in other materials whatever is contained
inside is hidden, whereas in glass whatever clearness or appearance is
manifested on the outside, it is the same inside, and though enclosed in a
certain manner, is manifest.
Thus, according to Isidore, "vitrum" comes from "videre" --
meaning "to see." Later etymologists have suggested other ideas on the
subject. One proposes the Sanskrit "vithura" -- meaning "fragile,
brittle, breakable thing." Another proposes a derivation from the Latin
"virere" -- meaning "to be green." Still another proposes a
descent from the Sanskrit "vitrás" or "vétás"
-- meaning "white, light, shining."
(Etymologies XVI.16)
TEXT PANELS IN THE EXHIBITION
To Be Added . . .
FURTHER READING
These publications, all in English, focus on ancient glass in American
collections. In addition, the articles on ancient glass in the Journal of
Glass Studies and in Readings in Glass History are highly
recommended.
1976, Ancient Glass in the Newark Museum. The
Newark Museum.
1982,
Cameo Glass. The Corning Museum of Glass.
Goldstein, Sidney M.
1979, Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in the
Corning Museum of Glass . The Corning Museum of Glass.
1978, "Ancient Glass," Museum News, Vol.
XX, no. 3. The Toledo Museum of Art.
1936, Roman Glass from Karanis. The
University of Michigan Press.
1969, Ancient Glass: Pre-Roman and
Roman. The Royal Archaeological Institute.
1975, Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario
Museum. The Royal Ontario Museum.
1980, Ancient Glass in the Yale University Art
Gallery. Yale University Art Gallery.
1979, "A Recent Acquisition of Ancient Glass at the
Kelsey Museum," Bulletin of the Museums of Art and Archaeology,
Vol. II. The University of Michigan.