Unknown Artist
The Lycurgus Cup is an example of magical Roman technology. This glass shows a mythological uncommon story of Lycurgus, the Ruler of the ancient Thrace in Greece.
He persecuted the god Dionysus and his followers, which included the Nymph Ambrosia. They defeated Lycurgus when Ambrosia begged the goddess of the Earth to save her from him, and was transformed into a vine, entangling Lycurgus. This very instant is depicted on this side of the cup.
This masterpiece keeps two technical secrets. The first is how the decoration floats above the body of the cup. Apart from the late metallic additions, the cage cup consists in two layers of glass linked together at only a few points, which could be enough to consider the whole thing a masterpiece.
The second secret lies in the glass itself: it’s a dichroic glass. This means the color of the cup is green in normal light, but when light goes through the glass, it takes a deep red shade. Scientific studies made on this cup came to the conclusion that the glass contains 1% of silver and gold elements, which produces this unique optical characteristics. When light reflects on the silver and gold particles, it produces a hue variation we can perceive.
This is a fascinating example where the chemical analysis reveals ancient artistic secrets.
- Coraline Méric
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