Glass is so fragile that it seems almost miraculous that any piece of glassware could survive 3,000 years.
A new exhibit at Yale University Art Gallery — 130 pieces in the museum’s collection of ancient glass — is a lovely array of jewelry, cups, bowls, pitchers, flasks, bottles, cosmetic vials and jars from the ancient world. Some are sturdy and some are delicate and almost every piece needed restoration.
Still, the fact that these small antique artifacts survived the crushing ruins of their societies is astonishing.
Glassmaking originated in Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C. The technology quickly spread throughout the ancient world. Romans loved glass because, when properly dyed, it could be used to replicate semiprecious stones. By adding lead, antimony, copper, manganese and other natural elements, pieces could be made to replicate lapis lazuli, carnelian, alabaster and turquoise. As glassmaking processes grew and changed, glass came to replace silver and gold as the most popular medium for drinking vessels.
This was the most common usage of glass, and the title of the exhibit, “Drink That You May Live,” was one of several inscriptions on cups encouraging imbibers to enjoy their wine, to savor their favored place in the world. “Be of Good Cheer” and “Seize the Victory” also were common inscriptions on the drinking vessels that, in the early days of glassmaking, were enjoyed by elites only.
The earliest pieces on show are dated from the second millennium B.C., during Egypt’s “New Kingdom” era, when glassmakers were experimenting with techniques and colorations. The shapes of the vessels were inspired by the ceramic and metal pieces used at the time, and the colors, primarily blue, were created to replicate faience, the tin-glazed pottery made in that region for centuries. Turquoise-colored necklaces and small vessels including a piece of a vial that held the pharaoh’s wife’s eye makeup, represent this era.
In the early days, mud or dung was combined with straw, and the glass objects built around those cores. When the glass cooled, the organic core was scooped out. Over the centuries and millennia, other techniques became predominant: mold casting, metal-pipe glassblowing, inflating glass inside a mold, painting and gilding of glass pieces, combining colors in one piece, adding surface decorations.
Finally the capability for mass production was developed, which made glass more affordable to the masses. As Petronius was quoted as saying, “if it wasn’t so breakable, I’d prefer it to gold, because it’s cheap as cheap.”
Images of fruits, plants, animals and people were popular decorative motifs, as were geometric designs and imagery from religion and mythology. Dionysus, the god of wine, and his drinking buddy Silenus can be seen on the vessels, but also Jesus, menorahs and crosses. Over time, convenience became a factor in design: It was easier to ship a lot of square-shaped vessels than round-shaped ones.
The exhibit was curated by Sara Cole, who got her doctorate from Yale and now is a curatorial assistant in the antiquities department at the Getty Museum. Cole says this exhibit is Yale’s first that focuses exclusively on ancient glass. Many of the pieces have never before been exhibited.
“DRINK THAT YOU MAY LIVE” is at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. in New Haven, until Nov. 12. artgallery.yale.edu.
