Cage cup
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Diatreta_from_Komini_II_Pljevlja_-_Montenegro_-_4th_century.png/300px-Diatreta_from_Komini_II_Pljevlja_-_Montenegro_-_4th_century.png)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Diatreta_Trivulzio_-_Museo_Archeologico_-_Milan_2014_%28cropped%29.jpg/300px-Diatreta_Trivulzio_-_Museo_Archeologico_-_Milan_2014_%28cropped%29.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Colognediatret.jpg/300px-Colognediatret.jpg)
Acage cup,alsovas diatretum,pluraldiatreta,or "reticulated cup" is a type of luxury lateRoman glassvessel, found from roughly the 4th century, and "the pinnacle of Roman achievements inglass-making".[1]Diatretaconsist of an inner beaker and an outer cage or shell of decoration that stands out from the body of the cup, to which it is attached by short stems or shanks. About fifty cups or, more often, fragments have survived,[2]and there are only a few in near-complete condition. Most have a cage with circular geometrical patterns, often with an "inscription", or phrase in letters above the reticulated area as well. Some have a flange, or zone of projecting open-cut moulding, above the lower patterns and below the lettering (only illustrated here by the Cologne cup in the gallery).
Even rarer are examples with scenes with figures, of which theLycurgus Cupin theBritish Museumis the only complete example to survive, though there are other fragments. In this the rest of the "cage" is made up of a vine that entraps Lycurgus. None have a foot. All were clearly difficult to make, and no doubt very expensive, like the other spectacular type of luxury Roman glass,[3]cameo glassobjects like thePortland Vase.Both the technology used to make them and the way they were used are still the subject of some debate among specialists.
Technology
[edit]Cage cups,diatreta,are mentioned in Roman literature,[4]and the dates assigned to examples (not necessarily by the same people) range from around the mid-third to the mid-4th century,[5]at the same time as the late Romancameo glassvessels. They appear to have been made of similar glasses, and there is also evidence that some late vessels may have been combinations of cameo and cage-cup techniques.[6]The main division is between cups with figures, whether or not accompanied by reticulated patterns, and those without. Some have inscriptions and flanges withovolodecoration; others do not. Most have a narrow beaker shape, but others a wider bowl-like one.[7]
Since the first publication on the subject in 1680 it has mostly been accepted that the cage cups were made by cutting and grinding a blank vessel of solid thick glass, a laborious technique at which the Greeks and Romans were very experienced from their passion forhardstone carvingsandengraved gemsin semi-precious stones. An alternative theory, once rejected but recently revived, suggests that this is only true of the rim of the vessels and the cutting of the fixed cage, but not for the joining of beaker and its cage; these would have been made separately and fused when hot.[8]For example, it is claimed that the smooth joins on the Munich cup show the fusion of the cage to the main cup, though the cage itself is carved. These smooth joins also show the Cologne and Pljevlja cups above. This remains controversial, and a fragmentary cup found inCorinthin the 1960s is said to show no evidence of joints where the cage meets the main cup when examined under amicroscope.[9]Also, the German experimental archaeologist and glass engraverJosef Wenzelhas reproduced several historical cage cups, including the Cologne cup, by first shaping a massive cup, adding the coloured glass on the outside as thick bands and plates, then carving them out, as this technology was widespread in the Rhine area, where it was used for gemstone cutting.[10]
Apart from carved gems, a small fragment of an openwork pattern in reticulated silver has survived in a large hoard of Roman silver chopped up in the 5th century as bullion, and buried in Scotland atTraprain Law,now in theRoyal Museum of Scotland.The fragment shows a pattern based on circles, that is very similar to the glassdiatreta,suggesting that the same style may have been used in silver plate, though which came first is unknown.[11]
Some examples add difficulty to the manufacturing process by using different colours on the cage, like the Milan and Cologne cups, but most are plain glass, like those at Munich andCorning.For the special technology ofdichroicglass, which changes colour when light passes through it, see the article on the best example, theLycurgus Cup.
Function
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Brit_Mus_13sept10_brooches_etc_046.jpg/220px-Brit_Mus_13sept10_brooches_etc_046.jpg)
The function of cage cups is debated. The inscriptions strongly suggest that they were cups to be used, and perhaps passed around, for ceremonial drinking at feasts, but it has been suggested that the shape of the out-turned rim of the beakers and the missing stand of all known vessels means that alldiatretawere like the example in theCorning Museum of Glass,which was almost certainly anoil lampdesigned to be suspended. The Corning cup was certainly intended for suspension, as the copper alloy fittings were found with it; there is a round band fitting under the rim, and three pieces that are part chain and part rod, leading to a ring and single rod, and a variety of cups for three attachments,[12]very like ahanging basketin modern gardens, and an arrangement known to have been used for lamps by the Romans.[13]The convivial dedications found on several examples are paralleled on the bases on many Romangold glasscups found mostly in Rome.
The Lycurgus Cup has no out-turned rim, but may have been altered, or fitted with a metal rim like the modern one it has now. Like the Constable-Maxwell cup, the Corning cup is much wider than the other well-known examples, shaped more as a bowl than a cup, though apart from the lack of lettering, otherwise very similar in form to the narrower cups. The cups therefore probably form two groups: a bowl-shaped lamp group with no lettering, and a beaker-shaped group for drinking from, with lettering.[14]Cups for drinking with rounded bottoms, which encourage faster consumption as they must either be held or placed rim down (and empty) on a surface such as a table, are known from various cultures, with for example the modernyard glass,and other types of "shot" glass.
Origin
[edit]Decorative Roman glass of the highest quality tends to be assigned to Rome orAlexandria,the latter mentioned as the source of over-elaborate glass by the 1st centurysatiristMartialand other sources.
However the majority of finds ofdiatretaare from Roman sites along theRhine,or near it, suggesting that they were produced in the area, perhaps atAugusta Treverorum,modernTrier.This was the largest city of Roman Germany and the main residence ofConstantine Ifor many years, coinciding with the period when the cups seem to have been made.[15]Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium,modernCologne,is another possibility.[16]
Several more recent discoveries, including reputedly both the Corning and Constable-Maxwell cups, have been from the Eastern Empire, so there may have been two centres of production.[17]
Examples
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These represent most of the best-preserved examples to survive.
- Beaker-shaped:
- The Cologne cage cup at theRomano-Germanic MuseuminCologne.Its Greek letters read: ΠΙΕ ΖΗCΑΙC ΚΑΛѠC ΑΕΙ (pie zēsais kalōs aei): "Drink, live well forever." This is somewhat puzzling to archaeologists, as the rest of thegrave goodsfound in the same grave were very mundane.[18]
- TheCoppa diatreta Trivulzioat the Museo archeologicoMilan,the only example with no damage at all. This has the inscription:BIBE VIVAS MVLTIS ANNIS:"Drink and you will live for many years". It is 4th century, found in the 17th century in asarcophagusin between thecomuniof Mandello Vitta and Castellazzo Novarese (Novara), in the 18th century acquired by Abbot Trivulzio and in 1935 by the city of Milan.[19]
- The Munich Cup in theMunichStaatliche Antikensammlungen,found in Cologne, inscribedBIBE MVLTIS ANNIS,"Drink [and you will live for] many years".
- TheLycurgus Cup;no inscription, but the glass isdichroic,changing colour when lit from behind. Its origins are unknown, but it has probably always been above ground. This is significantly larger than the geometrical beakers, with a height of 158.8 mm (6.25 in).[20]
- The Daruvar "Netzbecher" ( "net-beaker" ) in Vienna, found in 1785 inDaruvar,Croatia,and now in theKunsthistorisches Museum.The cup was 9.5 cm high, and in pieces, with much missing. It has the lettersFAVENTIBVS,an expression of good luck (perhaps short for "Faventibus ventis" – "with favourable winds", a common expression).[21]
- Rheinisches Landesmuseum,Trier,found in 1950 in a sarcophagus atPiesport-Niederemmel, 18 centimetres high with a volume of 1.5 litres.[22]
- ThePljevljacage cup, found in 1975 at Komini/Komine near the city of Pljevlja inMontenegro;4th century with a clear body and blue cage and inscription round the rim:VIVAS PANELLENI BONA M( "Live, Panhellenius, in good m[emory]" ). It is in theHeritage Museum Pljevlja.[23]
- TheAutuncup, a fragmented but completevas diatretuminscribedVIVAS FELICITER( "Live in Bliss" ) discovered in 2020 in a IVth century sarcophagus of the necropolis of Saint-Pierre-l’Estrier at Autun, the antique Augustodunum, by an INRAP team and now in theMusée Rolinin Autun.[24]It containedambergris,the oldest evidence of its aromatic use.[25]
- A fragmented "vase diatretum" excavated inSerdica(Sofia) in 2001 in a Roman sarcophagus of the late 4th century.
- A figurative cup of thetreasure of Begram,apparently showing thePharos of Alexandria,found in ahoardatBagramand now in theNational Museum of AfghanistaninKabul.
- A fragment excavated in 2009 at the domus dei "Putti danzanti" (villa of the dancingputti) atAquileia.[26]
- Bowl-shaped:
- The Corning Cage Cup, in theCorning Museum of Glass,Corning, New York,a wider bowl than the preceding examples, 7.4 cm high, 12.2 cm wide. Certainly intended for suspension, as the copper alloy fittings were found with it, as described above.[27][28]
- The Constable-Maxwell cup, a wide example like the Corning cup, 4 in (10 cm) high, 7 1/8 in (18.2 cm) wide. This is still in a private collection, sold in 1979 for c. US$1.2 million to theBritish Rail Pension Fund,then in 1997 for £2,311,000,[29]and again in 2004 for £2,646,650,[30]a world-record price for a piece of Roman glass.
- TheHohen-Sülzenbowl, most valuable of six glasses found in 1869 in two Roman sarcophagi. Except the Dionysos bottle at theLandesmuseum Mainz,all of them are missing since 1945.[31]
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The Munich cup
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The Autun cup,Musée Rolin,Autun
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TheLycurgus Cuplit from in front
Historiography
[edit]There was little discussion of the group until the 1950s. In 1950Victor, Lord Rothschildasked the British Museum to investigate his Lycurgus Cup, which he subsequently sold to the museum in 1958. In 1956 the German scholar Fritz Fremersdorf published an account of their manufacture by cutting and grinding, which remains the conventional theory. In 1959 a detailed account of the Lycurgus Cup was published byDonald HardenandJocelyn Toynbee,which also discusseddiatretaas a group, effectively for the first time. A major exhibition in 1987, "Glass of the Caesars", organized by the Corning Museum of Glass and shown in the British Museum, Cologne and Milan, united several of the leading examples, and its catalogue, edited by Harden, remains a key work.[32]Modern replica cups have been made several times, partly to test hypotheses of the method. Supposedly an early German example, made in 1906, was filled with a celebratory drink ofchampagneand then broke at the rim when the cutter began to drink.[33]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^New Scientist
- ^Bonhams
- ^Bonhams
- ^Martin, Susan Dunbar - Imperitia:The Responsibility of Skilled Workers in Classical Roman LawAmerican Journal of Philology – Volume 122, Spring 2001, pp. 107–129, in respect of acalicem diatretum– related law, mentioned by Ulpian
- ^Specifically it has been suggested that the Lycurgus Cup refers to a political event in 324.
- ^Whitehouse, D., Late Roman cameo glass, in Annales du 11e Congres. 1990: Amsterdam.
- ^Bonhams
- ^The main current proponent is the German glass historian Rosemarie Liercke - see external links for her website, which has English accounts of her theories, controversial on this and other matters.
- ^Whitehouse, 83-84;Corning Cage Cup
- ^Glastechnische Berichte, Band 60, Verlag der Deutschen Glastechnischen Gesellschaft, Offenbach 1987, S. 224. Available on Google Books.
- ^Fleming, 110
- ^Cornelius Steckner: Pharokantharoi und Kylikeia. Dionysische Lichtgefäße in architektonischem Kontext,AIHVAnnales du 11e Congrès (Antwerp University Press) 1988, 257 -270
- ^Corning Museum of Glass.For fuller details click the red link on "(87.1.1)".
- ^Bonhams
- ^Randers-Pehrson, 27-30
- ^Broadman, 328
- ^Bonhams
- ^"Archived copy".Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-03.Retrieved2007-05-13.
{{cite web}}
:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^"Archived copy".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-07-22.Retrieved2010-02-17.
{{cite web}}
:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^British Museum
- ^"Kunsthistorisches Museum".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-10-03.Retrieved2010-02-16.
- ^Randers-Pehrson, 29;Local tourist boardArchived2019-04-30 at theWayback Machine;b/w photographArchived2011-07-23 at theWayback Machine
- ^FromClauss Slaby Epigraphik- Datenbank:"Belegstelle: ArchIug-1974-34 / EDCS-ID: EDCS-56900017 / Provinz: Dalmatia / Ort: Pljevlja / Municipium S[] / Vivas Pan(h)elleni bona [m(emoria?)]";Museums of Montenegro,p. 175, Government of Montenegro, does not supply the "H".
- ^Fossurier, Carole (13 November 2020)."Press Release: Aristocratic Aedui tombs and Antique necropolis in Autun"(PDF).INRAP Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives.Archived(PDF)from the original on 2021-10-08.
- ^"L'exceptionnel vase diatrète d'Autun contenait de l'ambre gris".INRAP Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives.22 October 2021.Retrieved2024-04-17.
- ^"News story (in Italian)".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-07-22.Retrieved2010-09-27.
- ^Corning Museum of Glass.For fuller details, click the red link on "(87.1.1)".
- ^"Cage cup".Corning Museum of Glass, Glass collection.Retrieved2024-04-17.
- ^Antikes Glas,Axel von Saldern, p. 398
- ^Bonhams
- ^Michael Klein / Dunja Zobel-Klein: "Die Dionysos-Flasche von Hohensülzen und die Lynkeus-Werkstatt" (in: "Römische Glaskunst und Wandmalerei", Mainz (Philipp von Zabern) 1999): "Insgesamt wurden bei dem Fund von Hohen-Sülzen 1869 sechs Gläser aus zwei Sarkophagen geborgen, darunter auch das Diatretglas, das vielleicht wertvollste Glas, das jemals in der Obhut des Museums war. Von den sechs Gläsern befindet sich heute leider nur noch ein einziges Glas in der Sammlung des Landesmuseums Mainz: die Dionysos-Flasche. Alle anderen Gläser dieses kostbaren Fundes sind seit dem Krieg verschollen. Dies ist umso tragischer, als besonders wertvolle Sammlungsbestände des Hauses - unter ihnen auch das Diatretglas und die Dionysos-Flasche aus Hohen-Sülzen - im Oktober 1939 nach Erbach im Odenwald ausgelagert wurden. Bei einer Überprüfung der ausgelagerten Bestände im September 1943 waren beide Gläser noch vorhanden. Als die Kunstwerke nach dem Krieg über den Central Collecting Point Wiesbaden - sie wurden dort neu verpackt und zwischengelagert - an das Mainzer Museum zurückgeführt wurden, war das Diatretglas nicht mehr vorhanden. Der heutige Verbleib des Diatretglases ist unbekannt. So kam nur die Dinonysos-Flasche nach Mainz zurück."
- ^Bonhams; British Museum
- ^New Scientist, see also Corning Museum, with a replica of their cup
References
[edit]- British MuseumCollection Database, theLycurgus Cup(see the article for further sources)
- Boardman, Johned.,The Oxford History of Classical Art,1993, OUP,ISBN0-19-814386-9
- "Bonhams": The Constable-Maxwell Cage-Cup,2004 sale cataloguefromBonhams,Lot 18, Sale 11380 - Antiquities, 14 Jul 2004,New Bond Street
- Fleming, S.J.,Roman Glass; reflections on cultural change.1999, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,google books
- "New Scientist",February 18, 1988,p. 51, review of "Glass of the Caesars".
- Price, Jennifer,Glass,Chapter 10 in: Henig, Martin (ed),A Handbook of Roman Art,Phaidon, 1983,ISBN0-7148-2214-0
- Randers-Pehrson, Justine Davis.Barbarians and Romans: the birth struggle of Europe, A.D. 400-700,1983, Taylor & Francis,ISBN0-7099-2266-3,ISBN978-0-7099-2266-7
- Steckner, Cornelius,Diatrete als Lichtgefaesse,p. 110-114 in: Lierke, Rosemarie ed.,Antike Glastoepferei: Ein vergessenes Kapitel der Glasgeschichte,Ph. von Zabern, 1999ISBN3-8053-2442-1
- Whitehouse, David,Roman glass in the Corning Museum of Glass,Corning Museum of Glass
- Whitehouse, David,Cage Cups: Late Roman Luxury Glasses,Corning Museum of Glass, 2015
Further reading
[edit]- Harden, D. B.:Glass of the Caesars.Exh. cat., organized by: The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, N. Y., The British Museum, London, Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne; Olivetti, Milan, 1987.
- Meredith, Hallie G.Word becomes Image: Openwork Vessels as a Reflection of Late Antique Transformation,Archaeopress Archaeology, 2015.
External links
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Roman glass fusing technology,Rosemarie Lierke website
- LampsArchived2012-07-22 at theWayback Machine