material
The man-made material called glass-a mixture of soda, silica and lime-was used more than 65,438+0,500 years before the Romans, but even they didn't seem to fully understand the complexity and necessity of the composition. Lime makes glass impermeable and more resistant to the damage of time and use. Lime can exist naturally, for example, as a part of silica, in the form of sand, which contains most broken shells. In fact, it is no coincidence that two areas are famous for their high-quality glass-the Belarusian River in Phoenicia and the Vol Tunus River in Campania-where the sand is rich in lime. However, some Roman glass manufacturers may not know the specific reasons, but they do understand that adding pebbles and shells may affect the final quality of the glass they produce.
technology
Before Roman times, the use of glass was mainly limited to opaque small bottles or large bowls, which were usually made by imitating metal products. Early glass was usually opaque because there were a lot of tiny bubbles in the glass when it was fired, and it was usually light green or yellow because of impurities. However, the color of glass can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the oxygen content in the furnace. Color can also be achieved by adding a small amount of metal to the mixture; Adding copper produces blue, green and red, manganese produces pink and red, cobalt produces dark blue, calcium white and lead produces yellow.
In 1 century BC, with the invention of glass blowing technology (glass was blown with hollow iron bars with the length of 1 to 1.5 m), glass with better quality was produced, and the production process became faster and cheaper. As a result, articles with glass containers have become more common and become daily necessities. With the invention of 1 century glass blowing furnace, this trend is further strengthened. As strabo pointed out in Geography, in 1 century A.D., you can buy a glassware with only one copper coin. The exact place and time when this new production method was invented is not clear, but the earliest examples of glass blowing can be traced back to Syria and Palestine in the 1 century BC. This is also the first record of glass in Latin.
Blowing glass technology not only makes the wall of the container thinner, so the glass becomes more translucent, but also creates a series of brand-new shapes. The old method of casting glass with molds and connecting white, brown, blue, red and green prefabricated components to create decorative effects did continue until 1 century, but it was mainly limited to producing larger containers, such as bowls, plates and pots. With the emergence of revolutionary new methods of glass blowing, the possibility of design has become limited to the imagination of artisans. Just as seneca marveled at his letter Morales, a glass blower can "make glass into countless shapes with only one breath, which is almost impossible for the most skilled hands to complete".
design
Vitriarii and diatretarii can use various techniques to turn simple glassware into highly decorative works. As we can see, colored glassware was originally made up of different prefabricated glasses. However, in the late 1 century, colorless glass first appeared in the drama of glass manufacturers and was strongly sought after by Roman families. One of the most popular shapes using transparent glass is a large water cup with a carved horizontal handle, sometimes decorated with carvings representing vine scrolls and laurel wreaths. Another decorative technique is to decorate the edge of the plate with the popular "egg darts" pattern in architectural decorative sculpture.
The production method of blowing glass into the carving mold allows mass production and a series of other designs. These designs are usually fused together in the mold with multi-color bars and high relief patterns. Decorative bosses were particularly popular in 1 century. Decorations can also be added by placing small pieces or small pieces of hot glass on the container, and the shape of the container itself can be changed while the container is still hot, for example, by pinching the glass at the bottom of the bottleneck. The handle is usually added to the container alone, and there is a lack of scissors in the glassmaker's tools, which is obvious in the folding at the end of the handle, which can make the glass gradually thin and break.
Glass can also accept preprinted designs, but there are few surviving examples. Abrasion is another technique to create decoration by creating contrast areas between light and dark on the container. Also use gold foil; Sandwiched between two layers of glass, gold is used to create designs, even portraits and character scenes, especially at the bottom of cups and bowls. This technique is also commonly used in glass funeral commemorative badges.
masterpiece
As glass manufacturers have mastered their art, glassware has become more and more complex and ambitious in design, and glass can now become a dazzling work of art. Gemstone cutting technology is used to create effects, such as those seen in relief. Perhaps the most famous example of this technique is the Portland vase, which was made during the reign of Augustus (27 BC-AD 14) and depicts the marriage of peleus and thetis in Greek mythology.
Later, ship cutting became more noticeable. By the 4th century AD, this art form reached its peak, with highly carved diatreta or cage cups, probably the most famous Roman glassware, the Lycurgus Cup. These cups are carved from a thick layer of glass, and only a hidden small glass bridge attaches the design or graphics to the container body, thus forming a lattice-like decorative work around the whole container. The Lycurgus Cup, now in the British Museum in London, was carved from green and red glass in the 4th century A.D., depicting the myth of Lycurgus and his fatal trap entangled in vines. Green decorative graphics are also carved from the back, as thin as possible and more transparent.
Although the Roman glass industry never reached the scale of other large-scale production industries such as pottery and coins, glassware became relatively common and very unified throughout the Roman Empire, and the absolute number of glassware production did not match it until the prosperous period in 2000. /kloc-venetian glass in the 0/5th century.