Artworks

Roman blue and white glass cameo fragment. In the centre a head faces to the left, a leafy branch hangs above him and a tambourine behind.
The Dutuit Plaque, recomposed from fragments and acquired by the Petit Palais, Paris, in 1902, shows similarities with our piece, both in terms of the lack of curvature, and its iconography. The main scene of the Dutuit example shows a nude youth sitting on a rock below a laurel tree, surrounded by iconographic links to a Dionysiac setting. This is the most common theme to be found on glass cameos. In our example a similar theme is indicated by the tambourine, which will have either been held up by a Maenad, or suspended from a tree. The firgure in the centre may be a youth, as with the Dutuit Plaque, or alternatively it could be a Maenad.
The development of glass blowing techniques from the 1st century BC onwards brought about a change in the material used for the creation of cameos. Traditionally, artists had used a hard banded stone, such as agate or chalcedony, which could be carved to leave the main relief in a different colour to that of the background. However, the artist could never be sure as to the thickness of each coloured band until he had started. The developments of glass manufacturing techniques meant that the thickness of the coloured layers could now be predetermined, giving the artists an unprecedented level of control. To create the cameo plaque, molten blue glass was poured into a mould and left to cool. Next, a molten white glass was poured over the blue, the heat of which warmed up the blue glass sufficiently to fuse the two together, whilst keeping the colours separate. Once cool, the glass was passed on to the artist who would carve away the white upper layer to produce, in low relief, a scene set against the contrasting blue background. The final effect was luxurious and precise and would have been highly prized by the wealthy patron who commissioned such an extravagant piece.
Alternatively, the cameo could be from a revetment panel which was part of a building's architectural decoration, an example of which is at the Metropolitan museum 18.145.38a, however the few surviving examples of plaques show a Dionysiac setting, which makes this unlikely.
1st century AD
Width 8cm
One surface chip to the bottom left corner, otherwise good.

Provenance

Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, Italy; acquired prior to 1914, thence
private collection, France. Accompanied by an export licence from the French Ministry of Culture.
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, UK; acquired from Charles Ede in 2014

Publications

Published in G. Sangiorgi, Collezione di vetri antichi dalle origini al V sec. D.C. Milano-Roma (Rome, 1914), no. 175/p.51