The chapter dealing with these marks, together with that on the
geographical distribution, forms the most valuable part of M.
Froehner’s already quoted work on ancient glass.
Footnote 59:
So when some of our leading archæologists saw at first in the
discoveries of Schliemann at Mycenæ and Troy the work of wandering
tribes of the fifth and sixth centuries, they were unconsciously
arguing in favour of this often renewed Oriental influence.
Footnote 60:
The glass from the catacombs has long attracted notice, with the
result that many more or less clever forgeries, dating from the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, have to be reckoned with. These
_fondi d’oro_ are most completely illustrated by Garucci in the third
volume of the Jesuit father’s great work, the _Storia dell’ Arte
Christiana_ (1876), as well as in an earlier work (1858 and 1864),
especially devoted to Christian glass. The most scholarly treatment
of the subject is to be found in the little work of Dr. Hermann
Vopel, _Die Alt-Christlichen Goldgläser_ (1899). For an excellent
summary of what is known on the subject, see also the catalogue of
the early Christian Antiquities in the British Museum, by Mr. O. M.
Dalton, and the same writer’s paper in the _Archæological Journal_
(1901).
Footnote 61:
‘... quo facto desuper ipsas
Armavi vitrum docto flatu tenuatum
Ignis; sed post quam pariter sensere calorem
Se vitrum fialis tenuatum junxit honeste.’
These lines, which describe the critical process by which the
superficial layer of glass was applied, are unfortunately somewhat
obscure. If I have translated them aright, the process did not differ
much from that now adopted at Murano. Heraclius is here probably
copying an older recipe.
Footnote 62:
There is a good example, a bearded man, in the Glass Room at the
British Museum. Some clever imitations were made in the eighteenth
century.
Footnote 63:
As examples of this, note the gladiator glass and the _Anatoli
Gaudens_ portrait from the Tyskiewitz collection. This last example,
of quite exceptional merit, has been recently acquired by the British
Museum.
Footnote 64:
I am inclined to connect the cemetery glass as a whole with the
Judaising Christians of the old narrow school, who had long been
settled in Rome near to the Porta Capena and in the Transteverine
quarters, not far, that is to say, from the principal cemeteries.
Footnote 65:
Formerly in the Basilewski collection, now, I think, in the
Hermitage, St. Petersburg. This cup, which is also of interest for
the inscriptions on it in a local dialect of debased Latin, was found
near the site of Doclea, to the north of the Lake of Scutari.
Footnote 66:
In the Theodosian code, however, we find, among the craftsmen who are
freed from personal taxes, _Vitrearii, vasa vitrea conflantes_.
Footnote 67:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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