Roman Glass first century BC to first century AD
From an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Paris, June 2006...
It was an adventure just trying to get to the exhibit. I saw it advertised in the metro and once we identified the location of the museum on the outskirts of the city, we were off via metro to see the ancient Roman glass. I think it was the hottest day of our stay in Paris, maybe that was the day it got up to 93 degrees Farenheit. (I hadn't expected such high temps -- unusual for Paris in June.) We had been running around the city already. Got off the metro, stopped and ate lunch, followed by ice cream (we were hot and wanted to stay in the AC!) and then trekked over to the museum. Every museum staff member we asked sent us in a different direction to get to the exhibit and none of them even got the floor right, much less the location on the floor. Finally we found it, a little oasis of quiet inside this big industrial warehouse museum filled with schoolchildren. The exhibit starts out with a quote from the fifth century (couldn't read the author's name in my photo of the quote):
Il n'y a rien de invraisemblable dans la métamorphose de la matière en un état supérieure. Ceux qui conaissent bien l'art de l'alchimie... transmutent le verre en une nouvelle substance brillante en combinant du sable divisible et du natron soluble.
There is nothing incredible about the metamorphosis of a material to a higher state. Those who know well the art of alchemy.. transmute glass into a new brilliant substance by combining divisible sand and soluble natron.
This set the stage for the walk through an exhibit of glass amazing in its state of unbrokenness and detail.... I tried to capture some images. Most failed, as photographing without flash through a glass barrier presented new challenges to my photographic (lack of) skill. Here are images of just a few of the pieces:
It was an adventure just trying to get to the exhibit. I saw it advertised in the metro and once we identified the location of the museum on the outskirts of the city, we were off via metro to see the ancient Roman glass. I think it was the hottest day of our stay in Paris, maybe that was the day it got up to 93 degrees Farenheit. (I hadn't expected such high temps -- unusual for Paris in June.) We had been running around the city already. Got off the metro, stopped and ate lunch, followed by ice cream (we were hot and wanted to stay in the AC!) and then trekked over to the museum. Every museum staff member we asked sent us in a different direction to get to the exhibit and none of them even got the floor right, much less the location on the floor. Finally we found it, a little oasis of quiet inside this big industrial warehouse museum filled with schoolchildren. The exhibit starts out with a quote from the fifth century (couldn't read the author's name in my photo of the quote):
Il n'y a rien de invraisemblable dans la métamorphose de la matière en un état supérieure. Ceux qui conaissent bien l'art de l'alchimie... transmutent le verre en une nouvelle substance brillante en combinant du sable divisible et du natron soluble.
There is nothing incredible about the metamorphosis of a material to a higher state. Those who know well the art of alchemy.. transmute glass into a new brilliant substance by combining divisible sand and soluble natron.
This set the stage for the walk through an exhibit of glass amazing in its state of unbrokenness and detail.... I tried to capture some images. Most failed, as photographing without flash through a glass barrier presented new challenges to my photographic (lack of) skill. Here are images of just a few of the pieces:
posted by Barbara Muth at 2:08 PM
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