Furniture Inlay with a Female Theater Mask
Furniture Inlay with a Female Theater Mask
Place of OriginEgypt or Italy
Date1st century BCE to 1st century CE
DimensionsH: 11/16 in. (1.8 cm); Max L: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); W: 3/8 in. (0.9 cm)
MediumGlass; assembled from lengths of cane and cast; polished on the ends; side edges left slightly rough.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.314
Not on View
DescriptionThis is a rectangular bar of mosaic glass, broken at both ends, with the design running through its entire length. It was created by bundling hundreds of pre-made colored glass canes and rods to form an image in cross-section. This bundle was fused by heat and then stretched, shrinking the design. The bar was intended to be cut into thin slices, or plaques, for use as inlays. This slice depicts one half of a female theatrical mask against an opaque gray-blue background. The face is opaque off-white, with an elaborate coiffure of dark blue spiral curls and long sausage curls. The eyebrows, eyes, nose, and chin are outlined in dark blue, and the mouth in opaque red. A wreath of green ivy leaves crowns the head, and the hair is further adorned with a red ribbon and a horizontal yellow diadem with simulated red and green jewels. The cut ends of the bar were polished.
Published ReferencesRiefstahl, Rudolph M., "Ancient and Near Eastern Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 4, no. 2, 1961, p. 32.
Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "The Complexities of Ancient Glass,"Apollo 86, 1967, pp.432-433, fig. 14.
Labino, Dominick, Visual Art in Glass, Dubuque, IA, 1968, pp. 16-17, fig. 5.
Gunther, Charles F., "How Glass is Made," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 15, no. 1, 1972, p. 16.
Grose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-Formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 627, p. 362.
Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Mummies: From Egypt to Toledo, February 3- May 6, 2018.3rd to 1st century BCE
3rd to 1st century BCE
1st century BCE - 1st century CE
1st century - 4th century CE
1st century BCE - 4th century CE
Late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE
3rd to 1st century BCE
2nd-1st century B.C.E.
3rd century BCE
3rd century BCE
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