Gold-glass fragment depicting two male busts, Rome Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN2007.5.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN2007.5 AshLI 389

A fragment of greenish glass with gold inset, broken from the base of a bowl (0.092 0.11 0.099 0.003), with a patterned border. In the centre, the busts of two beardless male figures face each other, dressed in tunic and pallium. A wreath sits between them, above.

The busts are labelled with their names.

 0.002, 0.003 Rome AD c.225-400 (Zanchi Roppo 1967: pp.57-59). This fragment of gold glass was first recorded by Gaetano Marini on a scheda in the Vatican from the eighteenth century, from information given to him by Abbot Giacomo Severini, and was first published, imperfectly on the basis of this, by Garrucci (1858). It subsequently emerged into the public domain when it was purchased by the antiquities’ dealers Tommaso and Vincenzo Capobianchi in Catania at the public sale of the collection of the deceased Baron Alessio Recupero, when Garrucci was able to republish an accurate account of it (Garrucci 1864: p.103; Garrucci 1876: p.156). It seems most likely that Recupero had originally purchased the gold-glass in Rome, before taking it to Sicily (Garrucci [1862]: p.3). It was then bought by Charles W. Wilshere (1814-1906), a collector of antiquities in Rome between roughly 1860 and 1890, at the Capobianchi antiquities shop on Via del Babuino, Rome (Garrucci 1876: p.156; Vopel 1899; Vattuone 2000: pp.132-133), 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 2009-2011), 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 Photograph Photograph Photograph
Uru s
Dio n

Ursus. Dion

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 fragments of glass, within which text and images in gold are sandwiched, which have been 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 many indicate a link with feasting (Grig 2002). It is perhaps most likely that no single explanation should be sought, but that they may on different occasions have been gifts associated with weddings, New Year’s Day, and other anniversaries. 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).

This gold-glass fragment depicts two Roman martyrs: Dion, who was martyred along with others on 6th July in Campania, and Ursus who was martyred on 23rd April (or another Ursus, martyred in Nicomedia, and commemorated on 20th January (Garrucci 1876: p.156).

Garrucci (1858) p.38 tav. XVI no.8 (from a drawing by Marini); Garrucci [1862] p.7 no.IX + drawing; Garrucci (1864) pp.103-104 tav. XVI no.8 (from the original); Garrucci (1876) vol.3: p.156 + Tav. 185 no.8; Vopel (1899) p.110 no.420; Leclercq (1923) col. 1841, no.261; Webster (1929) p.154 no.99; Morey (1959) p.60 no.358 + Plate XXXI; Diehl (1925) ILCV no.909; Vattuone (2000) 134; Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS. Accession Register 2007.5

Online: EDCS-41500019 [accessed 22/09/15]

Cameron A. 1996 Orfitus and Constantius: a note on Roman gold-glasses Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 295-301 Garrucci R. 1858 Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovati nei cimiteri dei cristiani primitivi di Roma Rome Salviucci Garrucci R. [1862] Descrizione dei vetri ornati di figure in oro appartenenti al sig. Tommaso Capobianchi Garrucci R. 1864, 2nd edn. Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovati nei cimiteri dei cristiani primitivi di Roma Rome Tipografia delle Belle Arti 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 Papers of the British School at Rome 72 203-230 Leclercq H. 1923 Fonds de coupes Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie F. Cabrol H. Leclercq 5.2 1819-1859 Paris Libraire Letouzey et Ané 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 Vattuone L. 2000 I vetri dorati della Collezione Wilshere nella Pusey House di Oxford Annales du 14e Congres de l’Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre Lochem AIHV 132-36 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 VopelH. 1899 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 D. Keller J. Price C. Jackson 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. Vetri paleocristiani a figure d’oro Ravenna Edizioni A. Longo