[PA-NJ Glassblowers] New challenge to centuries-old theories on Roman glass
Tony Patti
gaffer at glassblower.info
Thu Oct 26 20:36:37 EDT 2017
I liked this story, thought it was worth sharing. Enjoy,
Tony Patti
gaffer at glassblower.info
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-centuries-old-theories-roman-glass.html
New challenge to centuries-old theories on Roman glass
New research from The Australian National University (ANU) is challenging
centuries-old theories on how ancient Roman cameo glass was made and
suggests the British Museum's most famous Roman glasswork is wrongly
classified.
Associate Professor Richard Whiteley from the ANU School of Art and Design
will present his new evidence at a historical glassworks conference at the
British Museum next week.
Associate Professor Whiteley believes archaeologists, historians and museum
curators have for hundreds of years incorrectly classified Roman cameo glass
from the period of around 30BC-50AD as blown glass - including the British
Museum's most famous example; the Portland Vase.
"There was a critical moment for me when I felt strongly that historians and
archaeologists have been wrong for hundreds of years," Professor Whiteley
said.
Professor Whiteley, who is known internationally for his glass artworks,
said his research over the past decade indicated the Roman cameo glass was
not blown glass, but was made by a cold-pressing process now known as pate
de verre.
His research was based in part by examining a fragment of Roman cameo glass
from the ANU Classics Department under a Computed Tomography scanner at the
ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering.
The images for the first time revealed the shape, direction and composition
of air bubbles trapped between a blue and white layer of Roman glass.
"I remember the moment I saw it, I said: Oh my god, this is extraordinary,
because I also saw cold working marks in the surface which were inconsistent
with the assumption that it was blown," Professor Whiteley said.
"I carve and shape glass with my hands, and have done for decades. The marks
I saw were inconsistent with what I see in my work.
"We saw a bubble configuration within the glass that results from a pressing
and turning motion. I believe that cold granulated glass has been packed
into a mould and then a blob of molten blue glass introduced and pressed
against mould heating the white granules from behind.
"You just would not get a bubble that size and flat-shaped from blowing. The
most striking thing about it, is not its size and its flatness, but we found
a section where the blue glass has mixed with the granulated white specks of
glass."
Professor Whiteley acknowledges a German artist, Rosemarie Lierke, came to a
similar conclusion in the 1990s, but her writings have not been accepted
because of the lack of evidence.
Professor Whiteley hopes his new theory will gain acceptance and funding for
an international research team to recreate the Portland Vase using the
original pate de verre method.
"It's not about proving people wrong, it's about correcting the historical
record and reviving and restoring a technique lost for over 2,000 years."
Professor Whiteley's findings have only been made possible through
collaboration with Dr Elizabeth Minchin at the ANU Classics Department, who
allowed testing on a fragment of Roman Cameo glass, and the Research school
of Physics and Engineering where the scanning technology allowed Professor
Tim Senden to express the bubble formations with mathematical formulae.
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