The exquisitely vivid image of a young man celebrates his success in a musical contest. In Greek, the inscription reads: "Gennadios, most accomplished in the musical arts." The fashionable woman, with her tight ringlets and elegant attire, and her son were likely members of a wealthy community.
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Backlit
With 18th century (?) frame (17.190.109b)
Artwork Details
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Title:Gold Glass Medallion with a Mother and Child
Date:early 4th century
Geography:Made in probably Alexandria, Egypt
Culture:Roman
Medium:Glass, gold leaf
Dimensions:Overall: 1 7/8 x 3/16 in. (4.8 x 0.5 cm)
Classification:Glass-Gold glass
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.109a
Said to have been found in Tivoli (Hadrian's villa), Italy; Francesco Ficoroni (Italian), Rome (by 1732); Dr. Conyers Middleton, England; Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill (sold 11 May, 1842, no. 70); Charles Wentworth Dilke, England (from 1842); Sir Charles W. Dilke, Bart. (by descent until at least 1889); [ Amedeo Canessa, Paris (sold 1911)]; J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (from 1911–1917)
Burlington Fine Arts Club. "Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures," 1889.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Romans and Barbarians," December 17, 1976–February 27, 1977.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century," November 19, 1977–February 12, 1978.
Yale University Art Gallery. "I Claudia. Women in Ancient Rome," September 6–December 1, 1996.
New Haven, CT. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. "Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill," October 15, 2009–January 3, 2010.
London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill," March 6, 2010–July 4, 2010.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Good Life: Collecting Late Antique Art at The Met," May 24, 2021–May 7, 2023.
Ficoroni, Francesco. La Bolla d'Oro de' Fanciulli Nobili Romani e Quella de' Libertin. Rome: Antonio de'Rossi, 1732. p. 11.
Catalogue of the Valuable Contents of Strawberry Hill. London, April 25–May 24, 1842. no. 70, p. 155.
Garrucci, Raffaele. Vetri Ornati di Figure in Oro, Trovati Nei Cimiteri dei Cristiani Primitivi di Roma: raccolti e spiegati da Raffaele Garrucci. Rome: Tipografia Salviucci, 1858. p. 83, pl. XL, no. 9.
Burlington Fine Arts Club. Exhibition of Portrait Miniatures. London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1889. no. 45, pp. vi, 11.
Vopel, Hermann. Die altchristlichen Goldgläser: ein Beitrag zur altchristlichen Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte. Archäologische Studien zum christlichen Altertum und Mittelalter, Vol. 5. Freiburg: J.C.B. Mohr, 1899. no. 528.
Avery, C. Louise. "Early Christian Gold Glass." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, o.s., 16, no. 8 (August 1921). p. 175.
Joseph Breck. The Ficoroni Medallion and Some Other Gilded Glasses in the MMA (June 1927). pp. 353–356.
Breck, Joseph. "The Ficoroni Medallion and Some Other Gilded Glasses in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Art Bulletin 9, no. 4 (June 1927). pp. 355–56, fig. 1.
Peirce, Hayford. "La Verre Peint de Brescia." Arethuse 4, no. 14 (January 1927). pp. 103.
Breck, Joseph, and Meyric R. Rogers. The Pierpont Morgan Wing: A Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. p. 42, fig. 20.
Wagner de Kertesz, Margarita. Historia Universal de las Joyas. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Centurion, 1947. p. 230.
Morey, Charles Rufus. The Gold-Glass Collection of the Vatican Library, with Additional Catalogues of Other Gold-Glass Collections, edited by Guy Ferrari. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1959. pl. XXXVII, no. 452.
Romans & Barbarians. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1976. no. 113, pp. 103–4, colorpl. p. x.
Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. no. 265, pp. 287–88.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. p. 21, pl. 7.
Kleiner, Diana E. E, and Susan B. Matheson, ed. I Clavdia: Women in Ancient Rome. New Haven and Austin: Yale University Art Gallery, 1996. p. 148.
Snodin, Michael, and Cynthia Roman, ed. Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill. New Haven, Connecticut; London: Yale University Press, 2009. pp. 317–318.
Howells, Daniel Thomas. A Catalogue of the Late Antique Gold Glass in the British Museum, edited by Chris Entwistle, and Liz James. London: British Museum Press, 2015. pp. 42, 115–16, 147, pl. 23.
Patt, Rachel Catherine. “Probably Alexandria”: Gold-Glass Portraiture and the Allure of Egypt (2024). fig. 2, pp. 223-240.
Patt, Rachel Catherine. "The Fragility of Solace: Pothos and Memory in Late Roman Gold-Glass Portraiture." The Art Bulletin, 106:1 (2024). fig. 11, pp. 78-79.
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