Utilisateur:Rhadamante/coupe Lycurgue
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| Coupe de Lycurgue | |
 Coupe de Lycurgue, éclairée par derrière | |
| Type | coupe |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 15,8 cm (hauteur) 13,2 cm (diamètre maximum) |
| Matériau | Verre, montures en bronze doré |
| Période | Antiquité tardive |
| Culture | romaine |
| Date de découverte | IVe siècle |
| Lieu de découverte | |
| Conservation | British Museum, Londres |
| Fiche descriptive | [1] |
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La coupe de Lycurgue est une coupe en verre romaine, datant du IVe siècle après J.-C. Elle est faite de verre dichroïque, qui présente une couleur différente selon que la lumière passe à travers ou non. Ainsi, le verre apparaît translucide et rouge quand la coupe est éclairée par derrière, et vert et opaque lorsqu'elle est éclairée de face[1]. C'est le seul objet romain fait entièrement dans ce type de verre[2] et le seul montrant un changement d ecouleur aussi impressionnant[3].
Cette coupe est aussi un des très rares exemples de diatretum romain, où le verre a été soigneusement coupé et reconnecté pour ne laisser qu'une « cage » décorative à sa surface originelle. Many parts of the cage have been completely undercut. La plupart des diatretum possèdent une cage présentant une forme géométrique abstraite, mais ici, il s'agit d'une composition but here there is a composition avec des personnages,[4] montrant le mythique roi Lycurgue, qui (selon la version) a essayé de tuer Ambrosia, une apôtre du dieu Dionysos (Bacchus chez les Romains). Elle fut transformée en vigne qui s'enroula autour du roi enragé, le retenant et finissant par le tuer. Dionysus and two followers are shown taunting the king. The cup is the "only well-preserved figural example" of a cage cup.[5]
La coupe de Lycurgue est une coupe romaine, en verre, datant du IVe siècle après J.-C. Elle est conservée au British Museum.
C'est le plus ancien objet identifié en rubis doré[6], mélange de verre, d'or et d'argent, avec des traces de cuivre.
Sa caractéristique principale est sa couleur : lorsqu'elle est éclairée de face, elle apparaît verte et opaque, et lorsque la lumière passe à travers (éclairage de l'intérieur ou par derrière) elle apparaît rouge. Ce phénomène est dû à la résonance des plasmons de surface.
History modifier
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The cup was "perhaps made in Alexandria" or Rome in about 290-325 AD, and measures 16.5 x 13.2 cm.[7] From its excellent condition it is probable that, like several other luxury Roman objects, it has always been preserved above ground; most often such objects ended up in the relatively secure environment of a church treasury. Alternatively it might, like several other cage cups, have been recovered from a sarcophagus. The present gilt-bronze rim and foot were added in about 1800,[8] suggesting it was one of the many objects taken from church treasuries during the period of the French Revolution and French Revolutionary Wars. The foot continues the theme of the cup with open-work vine leaves, and the rim has leaf forms that lengthen and shorten to match the scenes in glass. In 1958 the foot was removed by British Museum conservators, and not rejoined to the cup until 1973.[9] There may well have been earlier mounts[10].
The early history of the cup is unknown, and it is first mentioned in print in 1845, when a French writer said he had seen it "some years ago, in the hands of M. Dubois".[11] This is probably shortly before it was acquired by the Rothschild family.[12] Certainly Lionel de Rothschild owned it by 1862, when he lent it to an exhibition at what is now the V&A Museum, after which it virtually fell from scholarly view until 1950. In 1958 Victor, Lord Rothschild sold it to the British Museum for £20,000, £2,000 of which was donated by the Art Fund (then the NACF)[13].
The cup is normally on display, lit from behind, in Room 50 (it forms part of the museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe rather than the Greece and Rome Department), which is currently closed for refurbishment. From November 2012 to August 2013 it was on display with other British Museum pieces at The Art Institute of Chicago's Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Art, [14] where it was very effectively displayed in a free-standing case, lit from above with changing light so that the colour change was clearly visible.[15] It is considered able to travel to important exhibitions and in 2008 was exhibited in "Reflecting Antiquity, Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome" at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, in 2003 at the Hayward Gallery in London in "'Saved! 100 Years of the National Art Collections Fund", and in 1987 in "Glass of the Caesars" in the British Museum, Cologne, Milan, and Rome[16].
Notes et références modifier
- British Museum Highlights ; voir aussi (en) this pdf avec de bonnes image sous les deux type d'illumination
- British Museum - The Lycurgus Cup
- Freestone, 271
- Corning Museum of Glass, Cage cups;Freestone, 270
- Williams, 342
- Mangin L, « La coupe d'invisibilité », Pour la Science, septembre 2010, p.88-89.
- Williams, 342; the British Museum Highlights has "4th century AD. Probably made in Rome". The dimensions are also from Williams and the Highlights; the Collection database has 15.88 cm for the height, perhaps a difference arising from the remounting of the foot.
- Williams, 342, who says "gilt-bronze"; The BM database says "silver-gilt".
- British Museum database, where there are also photographs with the foot removed.
- Freestone, 271
- "il y a quelques années, entre les mains de M. Dubois", Harden, 247.
- Harden, 247
- Harden, 246; Art Fund website
- Chicago Sun-Times
- See videos on external links
- British Museum Database; Harden p. XI; see also Corning link above.