portrait

Object NamePortrait of Beethoven

Maker Steuben Glass, Inc. (1903-)

Made FromLead Glass

Date1972

Techniquecast, engraved, cut, ground and polished

SizeH: 25.5 cm, W: 26 cm

Accession Number75.4.53

Credit LineGift of Steuben Glass

Curatorial Area(s)

Postwar and Contemporary

Place Made

United States

Physical DescriptionColorless lead glass; cast, engraved, cut, ground and polished. Portrait of Beethoven. Slab, roughly circular, with upper and lower surfaces in parallel planes and with sides cut in triangular facets which extend from surface to surface; upper surface has ten sides and lower surface had nine sides (one of which has been cut away); no side of lower surface is vertically below any side in upper surface; both sides and all triangular facets ground and polished. Lower surface has deeply engraved portrait of Beethoven which, seen through glass, faces left, three-quarters toward front; copious wavy hair as though agitated by wind, face clean-shaven; he wears outer garment with collar turned up on his left; image is unpolished and so appears silver-gray; above and to right and left of portrait, three groups of wavy lines which originate at angles where two sides meet and which for part of their length are roughly parallel, like musical staves; to right and left, where ends of "staves" meet sides of surface, appropriate edges have been cut in series of unequal notches.
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