Yellow Glass Amphora with Green Decorations

ProvenanceEx collection Florence E. Ligabue. Acquired on the French art market, 2012.

NotesThis small, thin-walled amphora was blown in a transparent glass with greenish reflections; the body of the vessel is adorned with a series of bluish concentric threads. The body, with its straight profile though animated by many vertical depressions, is surmounted by a rounded shoulder and a low, wide neck. The bottom is concave. The handles, made separately, were soldered to the shoulder and to the lip. Small amphorae of this type have a long tradition in the world of Roman glassworks, since the first examples were produced in the 1st century A.D. As is the case for other popular forms, they exist in various formal, decorative and color versions (more or less rounded or straight body, more or less high and wide neck, etc.). Our amphora can probably be attributed to a Near Eastern workshop and be dated to the late Roman period. Glassblowing was introduced towards the middle of the 1st century B.C. in the Syrian-Palestinian region, and later spread all throughout the Mediterranean basin. This technical innovation completely transformed the glass industry, since it enabled glassmakers to produce tableware and storage containers in a much wider variety, and more easily and quickly than ever before. From the late Hellenistic period, glass definitely supplanted clay as a raw material for the manufacture of vessels in all areas of daily life. Complete and virtually intact. Superficial deposits and traces of patina. Slightly asymmetrical shape.