Fragment of an Inlay
1st century BCE–1st century CE
Medium
Glass, mosaic technique
Dimensions
4.1 × 4.4 × 0.3 cm (1 5/8 × 1 3/4 × 1/8 in.)
Classification
glass
Department
Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
67977
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In ancient Rome, there was a high demand for colorful glass that could dazzle banquet guests alongside the expensive silver and gold serving wares meant to impress. Fragments like this one would have once been a part of larger mosaic dishes. The mosaic pattern was made by sagging molten glass into bowl-shaped molds, a technique used on many of these fragments is similar to millefiori, “thousand flowers” in Italian, a modern glass-making method in which tiny rods of colored glass are bundled toge...