GLASS OF THE BYZANTINE PERIOD and EARLY MIDDLE AGES
GLASS OF THE BYZANTINE PERIOD and EARLY MIDDLE AGES
The Metropolitan Museum’s collection of medieval art, one of the richest in the world, encompasses the art of this long and complex period in all of its many phases, from its pre-Christian antecedents in Western Europe through the early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic periods. This is the period between ancient and modern times in Western civilization, known as the Middle Ages. Extends from the fourth to the early sixteenth century, that is roughly from the Fall of Rome to the beginning of the Renaissance in Northern Europe.
In the Fall of 2000 new galleries for Byzantine and early European art opened at the Museum in a dramatically expanded and redesigned space that includes an intimate gallery under the Grand Staircase. The period of time this covers is from the late 300’s to 800’s and shows the glass of the Byzantines, Franks, Langobards, Visigoths, Anglo-Saxons, and other peoples. The examples are from these galleries.
SHALLOW ROEMER OR COUPE
This type of Wald glass is called a Roemer. Roemers (Dutch) or Römer (German) are wine and beer glasses that evolved in the Rhineland and the Netherlands from the 17th Century. The glass below has a shallow bowl with raspberry prunts on the stem. A shallow bowl is a less common shape for Roemers. For additional information on Roemers in the collection click on this link
This type of Roemer has never been called a coupe glass, however the dates of it’s development coincide with that of the coupe. The champagne coupe is a shallow, broad-bowled, saucer shaped stemmed glass generally capable of containing 4 to 8 oz. (120 to 240 ml) of liquid. Legend has it the shape of the coupe was modelled on the breast of French queen Marie Antoinette, but the glass was designed in England over a century earlier especially for sparkling wine and champagne in 1663. The coupe was fashionable in France from its introduction in the 1700s until the 1970s, and in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s. Champagne glasses (active link)
H: 9 cm
2nd Half of 17th Century
Rijksmuseum #204
18E Shallow Roemer 2nd Half of 17th Century H 9cm
TRANSLUCENT HIGH RIBBED BOWL
TRANSLUCENT HIGH RIBBED BOWL of The Windmill Collection of Roman Glass
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- Translucent high ribbed bowl
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- Translucent high ribbed bowl
Late 1st Century B.C. -Mid 1st Century A.D. (Isings form 3B), Eastern Mediterranean
Size: H = 6.3 cm D= 14.0 cm
Description:Vertical rim. The thick-walled green bowl is decorated with 21 pronounced ribs, almost vertically downwards arranged . Two parallel lines, incised using a grinding wheel, inside the lower part of the bowl. Flat bottom. Intact and in excellent condition.
Provenance: Dutch collection (acquired in the1960s)
Ref. The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York Nr.14.40.806
Remarks: Recent experiments by Mark Taylor & David Hill indicate how bowls like this one possibly were made: applying the ribs with a metal rod on a disc, re-heating several times and placing the glass on a mold to model the disc into the form.
For more details about the manufacturing technique, see also http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/ribbed.htm
MUSEUMS GLASS COLLECTIONS AND EXHIBITIONS
The following pages are about Museums’ Glass Collections and Special Past Exhibitions at Museums with Glass. The museums are arranged by the countries they are in. The links below will take you to our blog features – click on “active link”.
USA
THE YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY, ANCIENT ROMAN GLASS COLLECTION (active link)
Highlights from Yale’s ancient glass collection.
ANCIENT ROMAN GLASS AT THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM(active link)
A wonderful ancient glass collection in the University Art Museum.
JERUSALEM 1000–1400: EVERY PEOPLE UNDER HEAVEN (active link)
Exhibition was at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
ROMAN GLASS FROM THE KOREAN KINGDOM OF SILLA (active link)
Exhibition was at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
NEWARK MUSEUM’S ANCIENT GLASS COLLECTION(active link)
This is Eugene Schaefer collection of ancient glass comprised of over 125 pieces of ancient glass from 1500 BC Egypt through Greece, Roman and the Islamic cultures through 1200 AD.
FIRE AND LIGHT EXHIBITION AT THE NEWARK MUSEUM (active link)
Exhibition was at The Newark Museum
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (NEW YORK) (active link)
The following Departments with glass collections are listed:
American Wing
Byzantine and early European
Greek and Roman
Islamic Art
The Robert Lehman Collection, European glass from 15th -17th C
THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, GLASS COLLECTION (active link)
American glass of the 19th and 20th century.
Roman glass collection at the Brooklyn Museum, New York
THE CLOISTERS MUSEUM AND GARDENS IN NORTHERN MANHATTAN (active link)
This museum is part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and has medieval glass, art and architecture.
ANCIENT ROMAN GLASS AT THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM (active link)
“TIFFANY GLASS: PAINTING WITH COLOR AND LIGHT: ” AT LAFAYETTE COLLEGE (active link)
THE TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART, GLASS COLLECTION (active link)
THE PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART, GLASS COLLECTION (active link)
MEDIEVAL GLASS FOR POPES,PRINCES AND PEASANTS(active link)
Exhibition was at the Corning Museum of Glass
PAUL GETTY MUSEUM (active link)
The above link will take you both museums:
The Getty Villa in Malibu
The Getty Center in Los Angeles
ANCIENT GLASS FROM KARANIS A FIRST CENTURY GRECO-ROMAN TOWN IN EGYPT (active link)
Found in: The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART ROMAN, ROMAN GLASS COLLECTION (active link)
CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS (active link)
This museum has a large diverse collection of glass from ancient to modern in Corning, NY.
THE LEGION OF HONOR MUSEUM (active link)
The Legion of Honor is part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. They have a fine glass collection of about 3,400 objects of which 114 are ancient Roman and Islamic.
United Kingdom
THE BRITISH MUSEUM: POST ROMAN AND MEROVINGIAN GLASS 5TH – 7TH C (active link)
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM GLASS COLLECTION (active link)
This museum has a large diverse collections of glass from ancient to modern.
THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE UK(active link)
Fitzwilliam Museum’s glass collection comprises over 1000 pieces from ancient to modern
MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK(active link)
The Museum holds archaeological finds from every part of the inhabited world. The glass collection is from ancient Roman through medieval and post-medieval. Some of the finds are from sites within Cambridge.
France
PARIS AND NORTHERN FRANCE (active link)
The following Museum are on the above link:
The Musée de Picardie
The Louvre
The Musee d Archeologie Nationale
National Museum of the Renaissance
Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris France
Museum of Antiquities in Rouen
Germany
FRAGILE LUXURY at THE ROMAN-GERMANIC MUSEUM IN COLOGNE (active link)
A very large collection of Roman and later glass from the Cologne area.
THE HENTRICH GLASS MUSEUM (active link)
This museum in Düsseldorf, has a diverse collection of glass.
ROMAN MUSEUM IN ST. ANTHONY’S CHAPEL IN AUGSBURG, GERMANY (active link)
A small Roman glass collection found in situ.
Netherlands
ROMAN GLASS EXHIBITION IN HEERLEN HOLLAND (active link)
The Roman glass in this exhibition was from private collectors.
THE RIJKSMUSEUM IN AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (active link)
Collections of Roemers, Wald Glass, and Facon de Venise glass from The Netherlands
Israel
THE ERETZ ISRAEL MUSEUM-GLASS PAVILION (active link)
TWIN-LOOPED HANDLE BOTTLE
TWIN-LOOPED HANDLE BOTTLE of Hans van Rossum
TWIN-LOOPED HANDLE BOTTLE from Egypt, Karanis
4th century AD | Egypt, Karanis
Size↑14.5 cm | ø 6.6 cm | Weight 96 g
Technique: Free blown, handles applied; tooled
Description: Transparent yellowish brown glass, ovoid body, cylindrical neck, folded and flattened rim. Twin-looped handles, first handle applied on the shoulder, drawn up and attached to the middle of the neck, second part pressed together with the upper horizontal part of the first handle, drawn up and attached to edge of rim. Folded disk-shaped foot with pontil mark.
Condition: Intact and clear, perfect condition
Provenance: Collection C.A. Hessing, Laren (NL) 1998, formed in the 1990s, collection number 17
London art market, Sheppard & Cooper Ltd. 1994
Exhibited: Thermenmuseum Heerlen (NL), Romeins Glas, geleend uit particulier bezit, no. 86
29 April – 28 August 2011
Reference: Sotheby’s New York, auction 14 June 2000 lot 175 for a related example with triple- looped handles
Arte Primitivo, auction 28 June 2004 lot 215
Musées d’Art et d’Histoire, Ville de Geneve inv. no. 019019
Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum, The Eliahu Dobkin Collection and Other Gifts,
Y. Israeli no. 352, different neck
Archaeological Center Tel Aviv, auction 54, 27 March 2013 lot 276 for an example with triple-looped handles
GLASS AT THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, CAMBRIDGE UK
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK
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Fitzwilliam Museum’s glass collection comprises over 1000 pieces. The oldest glass objects in the Department of Applied Arts are beads from the Warring States Period (5th-3rd centuries B.C.) in China. Apart from this, most of the Far Eastern collection of glass comes from the 18th and 19th centuries, and comprises a variety of objects including bowls, jars and bottles. Other significant medieval and early-modern collections of glass include Middle Eastern glass vessels from Syria, Egypt and Persia and late medieval European stained glass. The museum also houses a collection of fine cristallo glass from Venice and Continental Europe as well as later lead-glass drinking glasses and decanters from England. Through the generous gifts of benefactors such as Nicholas and Judith Goodison, the museum also boasts an impressive collection of studio glass. (Description and some of the pictures below taken from museum’s web site.) http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/
This is also a wonderful and beautiful general art museum a must visit when in Cambridge.
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GLASS AT MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK
MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE UK
The Museum holds archaeological finds from every part of the inhabited world. They range from some of the very oldest – early hominid tools discovered by Louis Leakey in Olduvai Gorge, east Africa – to medieval and post-medieval finds from sites within Cambridge. They include finds from major excavations crucial to the development of archaeological science, such as those conducted by Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho in the Jordan valley, one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the world, and material from Star Carr in Yorkshire, excavated by Grahame Clark over 1949-51. MAA holds one of the finest pre-Columbian collections in Britain, including remarkably preserved early textiles; important prehistoric Arctic materials; wide-ranging collections relating to early research in southern Africa, on rock art among other topics; and – of special interest to Cambridge communities – finds from major Roman cemeteries at Great Chesterford and Litlington, as well as many other prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon finds from the city and region. (Museum description from maa web site at: http://maa.cam.ac.uk/)
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Most of the Ancient glass can be seen at Clarke Hall: Archaeology of Cambridge
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CLASSIC FIRST CENTURY ROMAN BOTTLES
Glass blowing revolutionized the Roman glass industry of the first century. It allowed, for the first-time, glass to be sold to the average Roman. One of the most common shapes was a simple globular bottle decorated with a thin white trail spiraling around the body and bottom of the base. First Century, glass artists were also using colored glass. The most popular colors were blue, aubergine and amber. Dark green was rare. The squat carinated shape is rarer than the globular form.
Below are some two examples of blown glass first century bottles from the Allaire and Hans van Rossum collections.
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- 21R Roman Amber Bottle 1st Century 11.5 cm
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- Roman squat carinated blue bottle 8.9 cm
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- Bottom view of 21R
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- Bottom view of blue bottle
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For more information on the above bottle click on these links:
Amber Roman Bottle 21R (active link)
SQUAT CARINATED BLUE ROMAN BOTTLE (active link)
TWO VENETIAN GADROONED WINE GOBLETS
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- 32E Venitian Wine Goblet
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- 87E Facon de Venise Gadrooned Wine Glass
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32E Cristallo wine glass has a bell-shaped bowl decorated with gadrooning and a thin clear glass thread circling the center. Stem Type: A tall hollow “a jambe” meaning like a leg or cigar-shaped stem rests on a merese (collar). The tall narrow stem rests on a wide circular foot. H: 15.3 cm, Stem H: 5.0 cm, W: 70.8 grams, D: First half of 17th Century, Ref: Lameris, 1991 #82
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87E This is a fine and rare Facon de Venise wine glass. It has a flared bowl with gadrooned base. Stem Type: A wrythen hollow knopped stemon a wrythen hollow knopped stem attached to a conical folded foot. Perhaps English, from one of the Duke of Buckingham’s glass houses or from the Netherlands. H: 15.1 cm, Stem H: 6.0 cm, W: 60.5 grams, D: 1650, Ref: Treasures in Glass, Allentown Art Museum, 1966 #39
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