Cameo Glass Fragment with Two Bearded Dionysiac Figures

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Cameo Glass Fragment with Two Bearded Dionysiac Figures

Place of OriginItaly, likely Rome or Bay of Naples

Dateabout 15 BCE - 25 CE (Roman, Augustan)

DimensionsW: 1 1/8 in. (2.9 cm); L: 1 3/4 in. (2.9 cm)

MediumCameo glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1540

Not on View

DescriptionThis is a curved fragment from a Roman cameo glass vessel. The design is executed in thin opaque white relief, measuring less than 0.1 cm in depth, layered over a translucent light blue ground. The composition features two bearded male figures. On the right, a man is depicted in three-quarter view. He wears a fillet in his hair and holds a thyrsos, a staff associated with Dionysos. His muscular torso is carefully modeled despite the shallow depth of the carving. On the left, another bearded male figure is shown nude and frontal, reclining in a pose commonly associated with Dionysiac imagery.

Label TextThis exceptional fragment from a Roman cameo glass vessel shows two male figures in white over a translucent blue background. The bearded man at right holds a thyrsos—a staff topped with a pinecone—marking him as a follower of Dionysos. His lifelike pose and high-quality modeling recall works like the Portland Vase. The man at left, also bearded, is shown frontally and in a reclining pose. The cameo glass technique involved layering colored glass to create imagery in relief. Acquired by Edward Drummond Libbey in 1919 from the family of Thomas Hulse Curtis. The Curtis collection was largely acquired in the 1890s from Charles Caryl Coleman, an American artist who resided first in Rome and later on the island of Capri. This collection history strongly suggests a findspot in or around Rome or the Bay of Naples.Published ReferencesSturgis, Russell, “The Coleman Collection of Antique Glass,” The Century Magazine, vol. 48, 1894, p. 557, fig. 13.

Gazda, Elaine K., ed., The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse, Ann Arbor, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and University of Michigan Museum of Art, 2000, pp. 220-221, no. 86.

Exhibition HistoryAnn Arbor, Kelsey Museum of Archeology and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse, 2000, no. 86, pp. 220-1, repr.