Cage cup

A cage cup ( gr diatreton " broken ", " pierced" ) is a generally bell-shaped, double-walled vessel with magnificent openwork glass. What is meant is that the vessel body is enveloped by a perforated glass network. The vessels are therefore also referred to as web mug and English as cage cups ( cage glasses).

Manufacturing technique

In the post-Roman period, the first such glass was rediscovered in 1680 in northern Italy. From the time you try to figure out the method of preparation and replicate them.

There are two theories as to how a cage cup was produced.

  • Grinding theory: First, the design has been cut as a relief from a blown blank and then the material behind it, except for some glass webs away. This theory seems to work well in practice, show cage cup replicas as prepared in the art. The grinding theory assumes the Ausschliff from a solid piece of glass, but does not explain the finding of completely preserved Diatreta such as the brown fields Diatretglases in Cologne ( pictured right ). There, the more glass basket is ground out only in the border area, but connected by glass unpolished river webs to the vessel body. This finding is examined to explain the pressing theory.
  • Press theory with a perforated intermediate cups of plaster or a mixture of plaster and a quartz glass blank bivalve could be produced which was then ground. The successful implementation of this theory into practice is still missing.

Function

The diatreta are usually regarded as drinking vessels, because they often have the form of drinking cups and decorated with toasts. However, the typical speaks for diatreta stepped lip of the resulting vessels, which is included in a copy in the Corning Museum of Glass from a dreihenkligen bronze ring, against this understanding. This retaining ring, the vessel as a high suspension lamp. Thus, the function of the vessel lip explains what the Untersichtigkeit all diatreta and even cup shape and toasts would be derived from the context of the cult of Dionysus, see traffic lights and Ampelos and Lykurgosbecher. Moreover, the published photographs of diatreta stage with appropriate lighting guide the luminous body of glass lamps with floating wick. However, the known from Cologne graves of the 4th century copies, for example, comes at a time in the earth, as the addition of lamps had long since fallen into disuse in the Rhineland. A clear, consistent interpretation of the function of Diatretgläser is therefore probably not possible.

Dissemination

Cage cup was a valuable ceremonial glass of the Roman period; there was even ancient laws governing liability for damages for Diatretglasschleifer. The first such glasses are known from the 1st century. In the 3rd and 4th centuries, the glass grinding art was at its peak. To date, about 50 examples are known which are often handed down only as shards. To serve a larger audience, even inexpensive imitations were made. One of these glasses was found for example in the late Roman, built in valentinanischer time Burgus Budakalász - Luppa csárda on the Danube Limes in Hungary.

Known Diatretgläser

  • Lykurgosbecher from the 4th century, since 1945 owned by the British Museum. 16.5 cm high, 13.2 cm diameter. Gold ruby ​​glass which appears opaque in reflected light and red - yellow-green against the light. This effect arises because in the smallest glass gold and silver particles ( about 70 nm) were incorporated in the ratio of three to seven. This makes it the only fully preserved glass with such an effect. Once his figurative design with a mythological scene: The transformed into a vine maenad Ambrosia imprisons King Lycurgus, who is chastised by Dionysus.
  • The Cologne cage cup brown fields in the Roman- Germanic Museum in Cologne was excavated in 1960 at the graves of the Roman estate district in the Cologne district brown box. It is dated AD to 330-340 AD. The Greek lettering ΠΙΕ ΖΗCΑΙC ΚΑΛѠC ΑΕΙ ( ΠΙΕ ΖΗΣΑΙΣ ΚΑΛΩΣ ΑΕΙ = PIE ZESAIS KALOS AEI) can be described as "Drink, beautiful live forever " translate.
  • Web mug from Daruvar (Croatia ) Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, fragment, 4th century AD Height 9.5 cm. The inscription is to FAVENTIBUS (about: " those who are well-disposed " ) supplement.
  • Coppa diatreta Trivulzio ( coppa Trivulziana N.Inv. 0.9.2840 A ) in the Museo archeologico Milan. Inscription BIBE VIVAS MULTIS ANNIS: Occasional, that your days may years to come! 4th century AD, was found in the 17th century in a sarcophagus in Castellazzo Novarese, in the second half of the 18th century by D. Carlo Trivulzio (also Abate Trivulzio, brother of the late 1763 Marchese Alessandro Theodoro Trivulzio ) acquired for his museum in Milan and then in 1935 by the City of Milan.
  • Cage Cup from the Corning Museum of Glass, diameter 12.2 cm, height 7.4 cm, with dreihenkligem Bronze Ring
Dionysian Mysteries Lycurgus of Thrace
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