Gold glass fragment, with Christ crowning saints, Rome Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN2007.12.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN2007.12 AshLI 395

A fragment of greenish glass with gold inset from the base of a plate. Around the circumference is a double border, within which sit the letters of the main text. In the centre are two male heads facing each other, with a smaller figure of a beardless Christ in the background between them, wearing tunic and pallium, who holds out wreaths over their heads (of which only the wreath in his left hand is preserved).

Dimensions: 0.047 0.055 0.004

The main text runs around the circumference, whilst smaller letters label the figures.

 Letters: 0.003 (around circumference); 0.001 (labels in centre) Rome AD c.325-400 (Zanchi Roppo 1967: pp.58-59) This fragment was reportedly found in Rome by Charles W. Wilshere (1814-1906), a collector of antiquities in Rome (Garrucci 1876: p.114), and brought to England. As an adherent of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Wilshere had particular interest in early Christian and Jewish items. Bequeathed in 1906 by Wilshere to Pusey House, Oxford (on the Wilshere collection, see Webster 1929; Vickers 2011), it was subsequently loaned to and then purchased by the Ashmolean Museum in 2007. It was bought by the Ashmolean with the aid of the Art Fund, the Young Friends of the Ashmolean, the Friends of the Ashmolean, the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, National Heritage Memorial Fund, Patrons of the Ashmolean, and private donors (Walker 2014: p.68). It is currently on display in the Mediterranean Gallery. Photograph
DIGNITAS AMICORVM
CRISTVS IOANES

Worthiness of friends. [--- Chr]ist; John.

Gold-glass is a feature of late antique Rome, and includes ‘pagan’, Christian, and Jewish iconography. Production appears to have flourished particularly in the fourth century AD. It consists of a thin layer of gold-leaf sandwiched between two layers of transparent glass. Originally belonging to complete glass vessels, the roundels that survive have been deliberately broken off from their vessels, to be embedded in the walls of catacombs in Rome, next to burials in loculi. Their function is much debated (summarised by Zanchi Roppo 1967: pp.16-19), but it seems clear that they were put in place both for the benefit of the deceased and to be viewed by visitors to the catacombs, particularly mourners of the deceased (Meredith 2015: p.221). Many indicate a link with feasting (Grig 2002), but it is perhaps most likely that no single explanation should be sought: they may on different occasions have been gifts associated with weddings, New Year’s Day, and other anniversaries. When complete, the glass vessels themselves may have been used in a variety of contexts, including funeral feasts and anniversary feasts to commemorate deceased individuals, as well as feasts in honour of martyrs (Walker 2014: p.69). Most of the gold-glass probably originated in relatively modest social contexts (Cameron 1996: p.299).

The phrase dignitas amicorum is difficult to translate: it is perhaps intended to place viewer and commemorated within a community of friends of equal status. In other examples (ICUR III no.8482a; ILCV 866b/d, 877), the phrase is combined with the exhortation ‘drink, may you live’, so we may understand it within a context of commensality.

Garrucci (1876) vol.3: p.114 + Tav. 170 no.4; Vopel (1899) p.110 no.411; Webster (1929) p.153 no.77; Morey (1959) pp.61-62 no.365 + Plate XXXI; Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS. Accession Register 2007.12

Cameron A. 1996 Orfitus and Constantius: a note on Roman gold-glasses JRA 9 295-301 Garrucci R. 1876 Storia della arte cristiana nei primi otto secoli della chiesa. Vol.3: Pitture non cimiteriali Prato G. Guasti Grig L. 2004 Portraits, pontiffs and the Christianization of fourth-century Rome PBSR 72 203-230 Meredith C.R. 2015 Engaging mourners and maintaining unity: third and fourth century gold-glass roundels from Roman catacombs Religion in the Roman Empire 1.2 219-41 Morey C.R. 1959 The Gold-Glass Collection of the Vatican Library with additional catalogues of other gold glass collections Città del Vaticano Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Vickers M. 2011 The Wilshere Collection of Early Christian and Jewish Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Miscellanea a Emilio Marin Sexagenario Dicata Split Franjevačka provincija Presv. Otkupitelja: Kačić 41-43 605-614 Vopel H. Die altchristlichen Goldgläser. Ein Beitrag zur altchristlichen Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte Leipzig and Tübingen Archäologische Studien zum christlichen Altertum und Mittelalter 5: Freiburg I.B., J.C.B. Mohr Walker S. 2014 The Wilshere collection of late Roman gold-glass at the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford Neighbours and Successors of Rome. Traditions of glass production and use in Europe and the Middle East in the later first millenium AD Keller D. Price J. Jackson C. Oxford and Philadelphia Oxbow 68-72 Webster T.B.L. 1929 The Wilshere Collection at Pusey House in Oxford Journal of Roman Studies 19 150-54 Zanchi Roppo F. 1967 Vetri paleocristiani a figure d’oro Ravenna Edizioni A. Longo