Portland Vase

The white figures seem to emerge from the dark blue glass. Follow the edge of a body or a branch and notice how the pale surface changes thickness. This is cameo glass, with a white layer worked back to create the relief against the blue beneath. The vase was made around AD 1–25. Its figures have attracted many attempts to identify the scene, but their story remains uncertain. You can still follow the gestures and spaces between them without choosing one interpretation as the answer. The material gives the carving a softness that differs from an opaque stone relief. This is the ancient glass Portland Vase. Josiah Wedgwood’s ceramic versions are separate works, made many centuries later. The Museum purchased the vase from the seventh Duke of Portland in 1945. When comparing it with a reproduction, start with the material. The dark glass and the worked white layer are part of what the original Roman makers achieved.