Cup in the Shape of the Head of an African Man

Place of OriginRoman Empire, probably Italy

DateSecond half of the 1st century CE

DimensionsH: 9.5 cm (3 3/4 in.); Rim Diam: 5.7 cm (2 1/4 in.)

MediumManganese-colored purple glass; blown in a full-size, three-part mold of two vertical sections and a disk-shaped base section

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.457

Not on View

DescriptionThis cup is made of transparent manganese-colored grayish red purple glass (5 RP 4/2). The rim was free-blown and ground, while the body was blown into a three-part mold (MCT VII A), with seams running along the sides of the face near the ears. The relief is crisp, and no pontil mark is visible. The form represents a male head on a sturdy neck, with a flaring rim and nearly circular flat base. The head displays a combination of frontal and profile views, with sharply modeled features: arched brows, narrow eyes, deep pouches, prominent cheeks and chin, broad nose, parted lips with teeth, and spherical earrings. Hair is arranged in vertical coils with four tiers at the back and short curls at the front. The head is crowned with a wreath of leaves and berries. On the base underside, a mold-blown design of three raised concentric circles surrounds a central dot. Faint ridges on the neck may represent a worn inscription.mold-blown cup, portrait vessel, head-shaped glass, three-part mold

Label TextThis vivid purple glass cup was blown in a three-part mold to form the head of a Black African man. Its expressive modeling—arched brows, parted lips, coiled hair, and earrings—captures both fascination and distance. Cups like this were fashionable in the early Roman Empire, their production beginning before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Though once attributed to Alexandria, most were made in Italy or the western provinces, where glassblowers had mastered the art of mold-blowing long before Egypt did. The head’s features, described in early scholarship as reveal more about Roman tastes than about real individuals. In an empire built on conquest and trade, makers often turned ethnic difference into ornament.Published ReferencesRichter, Gisela M.A., "The Curtis Collection of Ancient Glass," Art in America, vol. 2, 1914, p. 77, fig. 6.

Grose, David, "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art News, vol. no. 3, 1978, p. 82, fig. 19.

Stern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass, 1995, p. 219-220, no. 139, color pl. 21.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: map and guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 10, repr. (col.).

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 40, fig. 13A, repr. (col.) p. 41.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (while in Curtis Collection, per Richter 1914).