Glass hexagonal jug with Dionysiac symbols
Translucent deep purple, with handle in semi-opaque colorless with greenish tinge.
Tubular rim, folded out, round, and into flaring mouth; cylindrical neck, tapering downward; convex sloping shoulder; straight-sided hexagonal body, expanding downward; convex undercurve; flat circular bottom; strap handle attached in two large ribs to shoulder and top edge of body above panel with circular object, drawn up and out, then curved in, and pressed on to top of neck and underside of rim, with projecting flattened thumbrest above. Slight mis-alignment of vertical sections of mold on one side above cup section.
On shoulder, frieze of indistinct downturned tongues; on body, six rectangular panels, with vertical raised edges, containing objects associated with the Dionysiac cult: 1. crossed, double-ended thyrsi; 2. a footed jug with spout to left and high handle to right; 3. a footed amphora with high handles; 4. a syrinx (pan pipes) suspended horizontally from a vertical string; 5. a circular object with central protruding boss (a phiale mesomphalos or, perhaps, a cymbal); 6. a footed crater with high handles; around bottom, a frieze of thirty-one upturned, rounded tongues in raised relief; on bottom, raised circle around edge, a fine shallow circle surrounding a thicker and higher ring around a hollow central boss.
Broken, with several cracks and two holes, one in shoulder, the other in body below handle; handle streaked with black impurities; dulling, iridescence, and patches of whitish weathering on exterior, creamy brown weathering and iridescence on interior.
Tubular rim, folded out, round, and into flaring mouth; cylindrical neck, tapering downward; convex sloping shoulder; straight-sided hexagonal body, expanding downward; convex undercurve; flat circular bottom; strap handle attached in two large ribs to shoulder and top edge of body above panel with circular object, drawn up and out, then curved in, and pressed on to top of neck and underside of rim, with projecting flattened thumbrest above. Slight mis-alignment of vertical sections of mold on one side above cup section.
On shoulder, frieze of indistinct downturned tongues; on body, six rectangular panels, with vertical raised edges, containing objects associated with the Dionysiac cult: 1. crossed, double-ended thyrsi; 2. a footed jug with spout to left and high handle to right; 3. a footed amphora with high handles; 4. a syrinx (pan pipes) suspended horizontally from a vertical string; 5. a circular object with central protruding boss (a phiale mesomphalos or, perhaps, a cymbal); 6. a footed crater with high handles; around bottom, a frieze of thirty-one upturned, rounded tongues in raised relief; on bottom, raised circle around edge, a fine shallow circle surrounding a thicker and higher ring around a hollow central boss.
Broken, with several cracks and two holes, one in shoulder, the other in body below handle; handle streaked with black impurities; dulling, iridescence, and patches of whitish weathering on exterior, creamy brown weathering and iridescence on interior.
Artwork Details
- Title: Glass hexagonal jug with Dionysiac symbols
- Period: Early Imperial
- Date: 1st century CE
- Culture: Roman
- Medium: Glass; blown in a three-part mold
- Dimensions: H.: 3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm)
- Classification: Glass
- Credit Line: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881
- Object Number: 81.10.221
- Curatorial Department: Greek and Roman Art
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