A HELLENISTIC GLASS GROUP OF LOVERS, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

拍品描述

A HELLENISTIC GLASS GROUP OF LOVERS, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C. Cast in translucent blue-green glass, the group depicts two entwined figures standing upon an integral rectangular plinth. The principal figure stands frontally, the head rounded and summarily modelled, the drapery falling from the left shoulder across the body in deep vertical folds gathered at the hip. A smaller figure is pressed against the left side, embraced within the folds of the mantle, the two bodies merging into a single mass from waist to base. The reverse is left roughly finished, retaining the impression of the mould and pierced by two small circular apertures. The surface shows extensive iridescence and weathering products, with pitting and small areas of encrustation across the drapery, and a fine diagonal crack running across the lower body. The composition follows a well-established Hellenistic sculptural type of paired figures in intimate embrace, known from marble and bronze groups of Aphrodite and Eros, or of mortal lovers rendered in the idiom of the goddess. The frontal stance, the heavy mantle drawn across the body, and the subordinate scale of the second figure are characteristic of the smaller devotional and domestic sculpture that circulated widely in the eastern Mediterranean in the late Hellenistic period. The perforations on the reverse suggest the piece was mounted or attached, perhaps as an appliqué to a wooden or metal support, or set into a larger composite object. Glass sculpture in the round is uncommon in the Hellenistic repertoire, and figural groups of this scale are rarer still. The technique required casting in a two-part mould, followed by cold-working of the surface detail. The choice of glass as a medium carried its own weight. In the last two centuries before the common era, before the invention of glassblowing transformed the material into an everyday commodity, cast glass remained a luxury substance associated with the courts of the Ptolemies and Seleucids and with the elite workshops of Alexandria, Sidon, and the Syrian coast. Coloured glass in imitation of semi-precious stones, particularly the blue-green tones associated with beryl and emerald, was prized as a substitute for genuine gems and used for small-scale sculpture, inlays, and vessels destined for wealthy patrons. The subject of paired lovers, whether identified as Aphrodite and Adonis, Eros and Psyche, or an unnamed erotic couple, belonged to the wider Hellenistic taste for sentimental and amorous subjects in private art. Such groups were displayed in domestic shrines, incorporated into jewellery and cosmetic implements, or given as gifts to mark betrothal and marriage. The glass medium, with its translucent depth and jewel-like colour, would have suited the intimate scale of these objects and the private character of their subject matter. This figure exemplifies the technical ambition of late Hellenistic glassworking, in which the medium was pushed beyond vessels and inlays into fully sculptural form. Its survival, complete with plinth and mounting perforations, preserves a rare instance of glass employed as a substitute for carved gemstone at a sculptural scale, and stands as testimony to the sophistication of the eastern Mediterranean workshops in the generations immediately before the transformation of the industry by blown glass. Dimensions: Height: 9.2cm

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