Glass cylindrical bottle with painted decoration

Unknown

2nd century CE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Colorless with yellow green tinge. Colored enamels, painted on exterior. Fragmentary cylindrical bottle; horizontal shoulder with rounded edge; vertical sides, curving in at bottom. Cold-painted decoration on body, comprising three rectangular, vertical panels; at top, red and yellow horizontal lines above a continuous frieze of yellow strokes overpainted with red dots and dashes; a similar pattern runs vertically down sides between the three main panels, which are also framed with red and yellow lines. The panels depict birds, vegetation, and baskets containing fruit, all painted in red, yellow, light blue, green, white, and black. Reconstructed from many fragments, some of which do not join and with extensive losses; rim, neck, and bottom missing; pinprick bubbles; slight pitting and patches of brownish weathering. The vertical sides of the vessel are divided into three decorative panels. In one scene two ducks sit on lotus pods; in another there is white cock below a basket containing fruit, possibly figs, and a third shows a parrot also below a basket.

Artist

Unknown

Date

2nd century CE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Roman, Egyptian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76