Flask: Head of a Young Man, Probably Antinous as Dionysos

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Flask: Head of a Young Man, Probably Antinous as Dionysos

Place of OriginPossibly Turkey

Dateabout 200 CE

DimensionsH: 16.7 cm (6 9/16 in.); Max Diam: 8.5 cm (3 3/8 in.)

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

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1979.53

Not on View

DescriptionMedium thin glass. A few vertically elongated bubbles in neck, some small spherical bubbles in body. Translucent natural very pale green (10 G 8/2). Neck free blown. Body blown into a three-part mold of two vertical sections and a separate disk-shaped base section (MCT VII). Mold seams concealed hair. Relief crisp. No pontil mark. Ground rim slanting inward. Tall cylindrical neck, with constriction at its base. Horizontal shoulder formed by overblow. Body in the shape of a head. Circular concave base, with intaglio mold-blown design on underside. Around neck at regular intervals, four horizontal bands of wheel-cut incisions, a fifth band on the overblow. Body in the shape of a beardless youthful head wearing an ivy wreath. The oval face has idealized fleshy features: heavy brows, large almond-shaped eyes with heavy upper and lower lids and recessed pupils, narrow well-proportioned nose, carefully rendered, slightly parted full lips, round chin with a large central dimple and a slight roll beneath the chin, and heavy jaw wider than the forehead. Around the face is an ivy wreath with a fillet across the forehead, clusters of three round berries at the temples, and three heart-shaped leaves on each side of the face. The hair is rendered as large tufts around the face and very flat, irregular vertical ridges on the back of the head. On the underside of the base is a mold-blown mask of Medusa slightly turned to one side with grotesque features: large symmetrical face with broad semicircular chin, low straight forehead, small triangular bulging eyes, and small mouth with short full lips. Stiff locks of hair pointing outward surround the face on three sides; a half-round ornamental collar below the chin represents the knotted snakes. Below the mask is a bow-shaped ornament.

Published ReferencesCatalogue of the Constable-Maxwell Collection of Ancient Glass, Sotheby-Parke-Bernet and Co., London, June 4-5, 1979, p. 71, no. 113.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 21, no. 4, 1979, p. 79.

Journal of Glass Studies, vol. 22, 1980, p. 89.

Stern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-Blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries, 1995, pp. 230-232, no. 148, color pl. 25.

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

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 102, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Out of Sight, June 18-Aug. 29, 2010 (no cat.).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, October 29, 2010-January 8, 2012.