Intermediate gold glass

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Gold glass bottom with a married couple, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Gold glass bottom with a family portrait, Brescia , Museo di Santa Giulia

In the case of intermediate gold glasses there are picture or decorative motifs made of gold foil between two layers of glass. Both the group of Roman glasses and the specimens from the Baroque period are mainly drinking vessels.

Roman antiquity

Many intermediate gold glasses, which are very often referred to as gold glasses, were found in the catacombs in Rome . The vessels were pressed with the ground into the soft mortar on the sides of the graves. The wall of the glasses was mostly destroyed when they were removed, so often only the bases with the motif are preserved. Some pieces were also negotiated or imitated in the provinces, some examples can be found in the Rhineland, especially in Cologne .

Manufacturing technology

In the case of the antique pieces, a gold foil with the motif was first applied to the glass of the vessel body or the base. Details can also be set off in color with glass painting (cf. the pearl necklace on the family portrait ). The remainder of the vessel was then melted, in other cases also knobs were applied to prevent abrasion.

With some glasses, the gold foil was not covered with a protective glass layer. However, the motifs on such a gold glass are easily rubbed off.

Motifs

Bottom of a Roman intermediate gold glass with Jewish symbols. Second century

The motifs include private portraits such as those of families as well as Christian images (e.g. depictions of Christ , apostles or other saints), Jewish subjects and pagan depictions are also represented. Hunting pictures, circus scenes or depictions of crafts also occur. In addition, there are occasional inscriptions.

use

The vessels were originally everyday objects that could be used at mealtimes. On the basis of inscriptions with a congratulatory character, it was considered that intermediate gold vessels often served as gifts. Pieces with depictions of married couples can be interpreted as wedding gifts.

Intermediate gold glasses from the Baroque period

This ancient technique was taken up by Bohemian glassmakers in the first half of the 18th century. Your intermediate gold glasses consist of two walls of drinking vessels (cups, goblets ) that are perfectly fitted into one another and cemented on the lip edge , between which there is a gold etching . Between gold glasses are represented in all major glass collections.

literature

  • Charles Rufus Morey : The Gold-Glass Collection of the Vatican Library. With Additional Catalogs of Other Gold-Glass Collections (= Catalogo del Museo Sacro della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Vol. 4). Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Città del Vaticano, 1959.
  • Josef Engemann : Comments on late Roman glasses with gold foil decor , in: Yearbook for Antike and Christianity 11/12 (1968/69), pp. 7-25.
  • Renate Pillinger : Studies on Roman intermediate gold glasses . Volume 1: History of technology and the problem of authenticity (= Austrian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class. Memoranda. Volume 110). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-7001-0617-3 .
  • Donald Harden among other things: Glass of the Caesars. Olivetti, Cologne, 1988, p. 278 ff. (Exhibition catalog).
  • Daniel Thomas Howells: A Catalog of the Late Antique Gold Glass in the British Museum (PDF). London, British Museum 2015.

Web links

Commons : Intermediate Gold Lenses  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the experimental reconstruction cf. Howells pp. 41-52.