Gilded glasses

Photogallery

Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Gilded glasses
Hall of the Christian Museum

The “golden glasses” of the Christian Museum come from the collections of Chigi, Carpegna, Buoarroti and Vettori (seventeenth to eighteenth centuries), and were enriched by discoveries from catacombs (nineteenth century). This specific form of glass production, which took place in Rome in the third and in particular the fourth centuries A.D., is characterised by decorations in gold leaf, mainly Christian subjects (although Pagan and Jewish themes, as well as family portraits, are also found), enclosed between two layers of glass at the base (the only part conserved) of plates or cups, or in the form of small “bubbles” of coloured glass, positioned to adorn the walls of glass containers. In the earliest phase (third century A.D.), fully-fledged medallions, with predominantly blue backgrounds and very refined portraits produced in gold and silver leaf, were attributed to Alexandrine workers possibly active in Rome. Prestigious gifts in public and private celebrations, the “golden glasses” were found mainly in catacombs where, reused as ornaments for tombs, they were attached to the mortar used to close burial niches.