The Perfume Flask

The Perfume Flask

"The Perfume Flask in the Getty Vila"

The Blue Perfume Flask with White, Yellow, and Turquoise Festoons (Getty Villa, 2003.146), a perfume oil container created between 1403 BCE – 1347 BCE during the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty, is decorated with combed, festoon pattern in arranged colors of turquoise, yellow and white. According to the Getty Villa, the neck is also decorated in a similar pattern. The edge of the mouth is decorated with a yellow thread. The condition is good with some repaired breaks visible towards the lower body, and there is a small amount of discoloration in this area. There are a few minor nicks and scratches. The artwork is core-formed, dark blue amphoriskos with four small handles attached to the shoulder. The artwork rests on a conical foot.iv The height of the artwork is about 9.5 cm or 3 ¾ inches. The festoon pattern was common on small perfume flasks during the New Kingdom period. The flasks where usually used to hold perfume oil made by the Egyptians. The perfume flask is part of Erwin Oppenlander Collection, which was inherited by his son, Gert Oppenlander in 1988. Gert Opplenlader sold the perfume flask to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2003. The Opplenlader collection expands from the Mesopotamia period around 2500 BC to Byzantine and the Islamic glass of the eleventh century CE. The collection contains a variety of glass making techniques which are still been used by glass artists today.
The blue perfume flask was made by core-forming, a technique that a core of ceramic-like material was encased in molten glass. When the glass cooled the core was removed to create an interior cavity. The decorative pattern of colors were often trailed over the artwork and combed into patterns with a sharp tool. Most artwork made in this matter was use for perfume oil. The other methods of making glass during that time period are casting and core forming, mosaic glass, mold blowing, inflation and decorating blown glass. The method...

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