First, take a minute or two to look closely at the images above. Write down your reaction to these objects--what details do you notice? Why did you pick these objects for your response paper? Make notes on things that you notice about them. Also, write down any questions you have about them--what kinds of things would you want to know about these objects? Remember the questions we ask in class. You don't need to have answers for these questions yet, but keep them in your notes.

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Once you have some questions written down, try to answer them by reading the information I've provided below about this object and its context.

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What do we know about these objects?​

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There are three different pieces here--make sure to discuss all three in your response paper.

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These are small flat circles of glass, about 4-5 inches in diameter. Some may originally have been the flat bottoms of glass bowls or drinking cups. Artists created these objects by first blowing a sphere with a flat bottom, and then breaking off the bottom to achieve a flat disk. Then they took very thin gold leaf and glued it to the glass with gum arabic. The design was created by (very carefully!) scraping away the thin gold leaf in certain places to expose the darker-colored glass. Finally the artist would blow a glass vessel with a flat bottom of the same size. Once the correct size was achieved, the glass vessel would be reheated, and then lowered onto the first decorated glass disk while still hot. The two glass disks then fuse together, with the gold leaf trapped between. The whole thing was then reheated again to complete the fusing.

While these circular glass objects may originally have served as the bottom of a cup or vase (some of them have broken edges), they all ended up embedded in the walls of catacombs at Rome.

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Many of the surviving examples of gold glass are secular, and show portraits (including married couples) with messages like "drink, may you live", but others show Christian imagery. The most common place to find gold glass is in catacombs, where the glass disks were embedded in the walls of the catacombs, perhaps as a grave marker. Individuals could be buried in the catacombs in a coffin or sarcophagus, or their bodies could be cremated and the ashes buried in an urn. Either way, their relatives surely wanted some kind of marker so that they could easily find the grave and visit it.

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The examples above show Christian imagery:

• The first example has an inscription: "Petrus, Maria, Paulus"--that is, Peter, Mary, and Paul. Note Mary's pose.

• The second example has an inscription: "Lazarus" and "Christus" (that is, Christ). What's the story here? At the top, I see a feathered creature, perhaps a dove representing God's presence in the scene?

• The third example shows a story from the life of Jonah (see the story below).​

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According to the Bible, Jonah was a Christian who was ordered by God to go to the city of Nineveh (in modern-day Iraq) and preach to the people of Nineveh, in hopes of showing them how wicked they were. Jonah refuses this task and tries to run away. He is a passenger on a ship when a sudden storm blows up, which threatens to wreck the ship. The sailors throw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship's load and prevent it from capsizing. The sailors become convinced that this storm is sent by some deity, and they cast lots (a divination technique) to see which deity is responsible. Eventually they become convinced that Jonah's God is causing the storm. When the sailors confront Jonah, he admits that this is probably true, because he tried to run away from the task God had given him. The sailors ask what they should do, and Jonah tells them to throw him into the sea, so that the sailors will be safe from the storm. They do so, and Jonah is then swallowed by a huge fish. Jonah remains trapped in the fish's belly for three days and three nights, but after a particularly heartfelt prayer to God, God commands the fish to vomit Jonah onto the shore. Jonah then follows God's command and goes to Nineveh. He preaches that Nineveh will be destroyed by God in 40 days if they do not repent, and the people of Nineveh believe him and begin fasting, dressing humbly, praying, and otherwise trying to change their behavior and earn God's favor. God was pleased at their change of heart and decided not to destroy them. Jonah, however, was angry at God for sparing the people of Nineveh. He left the city and made himself a shelter in a spot overlooking the city, and waited to see what would happen to the city. God provided a leafy plant which grew up over Jonah's head and provided shade, which Jonah appreciated. However, at dawn the next day, God provided a worm which chewed the plant and caused it to wither in the heat of the day; Jonah was upset that his shade had disappeared, and became angry with God. God then compares the plant to the city of Nineveh, which God cares about just as Jonah cared about the plant. 

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Jonah is a common subject in early Christian art. There are several interpretations trying to explain why this is. One suggestion is that Jonah's three days in the fish's belly, from which he emerges alive, are equivalent to the three days Jesus' body spends in the tomb, from which he also emerges alive. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is asked for a sign, and says the sign will be the "sign of Jonah", foreshadowing his resurrection. The themes of death and resurrection are quite common in early Christian imagery connected with tombs and death (such as the sarcophagus we examined in class). Another suggestion is that the story of Jonah proves God's mercy, an idea which may have been particularly important in a catacomb, a home for the dead (who surely hope for God's mercy in the afterlife). In Judaism, the story of Jonah is taken as an example of the ability to repent and be forgiven by God. 

 

Some things to consider in your response paper:​

• What was your response to these objects? What drew your eye? You are encouraged to use first person (I/me) in your response paper. I want to know what you think.

• Consider the details of these objects carefully, noting how the artist has arranged the figures in each example. How did the limitations of this medium--just a few inches in diameter, circular--affect the composition of each piece? What kinds of decisions did the artists make when they were creating these pieces, and why? Use your art terminology. 

• Compare the images in these gold glasses to the images we looked at in class--many of these subjects come up frequently in early Christian art. Why do you think the early Christians were so drawn to these figures/stories? What kind of meaning do you think these objects might have had when they were being used in life, in glass drinking cups or bowls? How (if at all) did that meaning change when they were deposited in a catacomb among the dead?

• Think also about the context of these images, in a place of burial. It's interesting that funerary contexts are the most common place we find early Christian art. These aren't just frivolous decoration; someone made a deliberate choice to place these gold glass images in the catacombs, where they were visible as articulations of Christian theology—a visual expression of what these believers thought about death. So, what do you think these images tell us about early Christian belief?