Roman Reflections

One of the aspects of Roman culture that is exceedingly rare but also extremely beautiful is glassware. Several museums have excellent collections, including the Getty Museum in Malibu. This is a bowl from Pompeii in the National Museum in Naples. One of the things that happens with glass buried for centuries is that it can develop an iridescence, a sort of rainbow-like mineralized coating, which has a particular beauty of its own and is often prized by collectors. It’s hard to pick it up in a photograph, particularly when the lighting isn’t very good, but you can see some indication of it here.