Announcer: This is a Getty podcast.
Host: Get ready to dive in with this glass flask that’s
too cool for school... a school of fish, that is!
Welcome to If Objects Could Talk, a podcast where art
and artifacts get to leave the museum vault and tell
their side of the story.
Thanks for joining us as we bring objects into the light!
Pop quiz: do you have anything in your house
that is silly and seriously useful at the same time?
Maybe there’s a kitchen timer...that’s
shaped like an egg!
Or a key hook by the door...that looks like a dog’s tail!
Well, people in ancient times also liked making things fun
and functional like today’s guest: a fish-shaped flask
made to hold the era’s most popular condiment—fish sauce!
She was made from blown glass about one thousand,
seven hundred years ago in the Roman Empire.
I think I hear our fishy friend swimming this way now.
Let’s reel her in!
Fish Flask: Hellooooo class!
Are we ready to get creative today?
That’s one thing I love about museums—inspiration
is everywhere!
You could even learn a lesson about learning.
[laughs] But I’m getting ahead of things.
I haven’t even introduced myself yet!
I’m a glass flask about the size of a grown-up’s hand.
I was made of clear green glass almost two millennia
ago, although I’m a bit browner now with age.
I have the oval body of a fish, complete with two
fins and a long, curved tail that turns into a spout!
I even have a detailed face, with blobs of glass for eyes
and a mouth pinched into two stuck-out fish lips.
Not only am I shaped like a fish, I’m also made to hold a
special fish sauce called garum.
Try dunking your fries in that next time!
I think it’s also pretty funny that I’m a fish, but
I don’t come from the ocean.
Instead, I come from the shore!
The sandy shore, that is.
Can you believe that a hard, smooth, and clear material
like glass is actually made from gritty, granular sand?
Glass all starts with a pot of sand.
The sand is mixed with other ingredients like plant ash
and limestone and heated into a mass of hot, molten glass.
This is then placed on the end of a blowpipe, which is like a
huge, heavy duty metal straw.
The glassblower takes a deep breath
and blows it into the pipe.
This air travels down the tube and into the glass, blowing it
up like a bubble or a balloon!
While the glass is still hot and malleable, the glassmaker
transforms it into a new shape.
Blowing glass meant glass items could be made using
fewer materials so glass became something that
even middle class families could have in their homes.
As glassblowers had more business, they could
try making new, more creative things—like me!
[Sighs] It really is an impressive skill, glassblowing.
Admired by many but learned by few.
How do you like to learn?
Today you have lots of ways to learn—from the classroom,
from museums, maybe even from [clears throat] wonderfully
instructive podcasts.
[Laughs] All of
these are marvelous ways to learn new things!
But for centuries, someone who wanted to learn a
craft, like glassblowing, would become an apprentice.
Now that I think about it, I bet you’ve also learned a few
things like an apprentice would!
Have you ever helped out in the kitchen and learned how
to cook at the same time?
Or maybe you’ve learned how to plant vegetables by
lending a hand in the backyard or a community garden?
That’s how apprentices learn—by doing, with a little help from
an expert teacher, of course!
In Ancient Rome, apprentices really had two jobs—one was
to learn as much as they could, but the other was to
work as much as they could!
They didn’t just go to their apprenticeship in the
morning and then go back home in the evening like
your modern-day schools.
An apprenticeship became their whole lives.
Apprentices would often become part of their master’s family,
eating with them, sleeping in the home, and helping
out in the workshops, all in exchange for disciplina,
patrocinium, and nomen;
that is, the teaching of skills, patronage, and fame.
But personally, I think there are two more traits that go
a long way for all leaners, apprentices or otherwise:
creativity and kindness.
Don’t believe me?
Here’s a tale for you—a fish tail, if you will!
It begins with a boy named Petronius.
Petronius loved seeing the beautiful items made from
glass and wanted to learn the art of glassblowing himself.
But unfortunately for Petronius, the first day of his
apprenticeship was all chores.
[sigh] Isn’t that the worst?
The world is so full of such wonderful things to create
and do, but to get there you must first learn...the basics.
I remember how basic I was myself back then.
I was a drab and dull flask, no decor or whimsy to my form.
I watched from a shelf on Petronius’ first day.
He ran errands and swept trash and waited around to be noticed.
[sighs]
Petronius wasn’t even in the actual workroom, yet!
You see, glass-blowing can be a bit, well, dangerous.
At first glance, it’s a little like blowing
bubbles with a bubble wand.
A steady breath can make glass bubble up like soap!
Too soft and nothing will happen, too strong and
the bubble might pop.
The trouble is, this bubble is made from hot, melted glass.
When it pops, it burns.
The master didn’t want Petronius anywhere near fire
and molten glass until he could take the time to teach
Petronius how to be safe.
So Petronius spent his day doing boring tasks until everyone
else went inside for dinner.
Then Petronius crept carefully to the shelves where a dozen
or so of us were cooling.
He was mesmerized by the beautiful colors of
the glittering glass.
But we all knew he shouldn’t be in there alone...We
whispered worriedly to each other as he came closer.
Petronius had just picked me up to examine me when a voice
rang out, “What are you doing!”
Well, you can imagine how that turned out.
Me, shattered on the floor.
And Quintus, the oldest apprentice, staring coldly
across the workroom at a very ashamed Petronius.
Petronius was afraid his apprenticeship was over
before it had really begun.
And I was afraid I’d be swept into the trash!
But then Quintus did something that surprised us both.
You see, there’s something very special about glass.
It can be recycled!
Glass can be melted down and made into something brand new!
Maybe you’ve helped sort glass into the recycling bin at home.
But did you know there are other things you can
do to prevent waste, too?
You can re-use items
artistically!
Maybe not anything as dramatic as broken glass.
Let’s leave handling sharp objects to the experts!
I’ve got another assignment in mind for you.
Think about what’s around your home.
Got any used-up toilet paper rolls?
I bet they’d love their next life as a pair of binoculars!
Or perhaps some musically inclined tin cans could
really shine as a wind chime.
Or maybe there’s an old t-shirt that’s ready to
be remade into a tote-bag.
It can be scary, turning into something new, but
I’ll always be grateful for the second chance I got.
Now, where were we?
Oh, yes.
Broken pieces of me all across the floor.
First, Petronius swept up my glass shards.
Then Quintus took over, re-melting me into a scorching
ball of molten glass.
It was hot enough to burn your skin, but to me, it felt
like a nice evening bath.
Relaxing!
Petronius watched closely, asking question after question.
Quintus thought, “why not show Petronius the many tricks of the
trade and get a little creative too!” Quintus inflated me into
a little glass ball, all puffed up like I was holding my breath!
Then he let me deflate a bit, so I became a little flatter.
Next, Quintus trailed molten glass around my body
and tail to make stripes,
added dabs for the eyes, and pinched two fishy
lips into existence.
Finally, as he clipped me from the blow pipe, he let the
spout part of me tip upwards a bit, like the tail of a fish.
Yes, he made a charming and artistic fish flask,
if I do say so myself.
Both Petronius and Quintus became masters in their time,
with apprentices of their own.
But Petronius never forgot my first teaching moment
in the kindness Quintus showed him, or the way that
Quintus had turned a mistake into something marvelous.
That’s a real artist, if you ask me.
I bet you can do it, too!
Think about it the next time you see something
destined for the trash heap.
With a little imagination, maybe you could make it
even better than before!
Host: I hope you enjoyed learning about glassblowing
and apprenticeships!
Join us next time when a household god graces
us with his presence.
To see photographs of the fish flask and learn more,
visit our website at Getty dot edu slash podcasts.
This episode was written by Claire Hupy and
produced by Zoe Goldman.
Katie Jostock voiced the fish.
Theme music, mixing and sound design by Alexandra Kalinowski.
Christopher Sprinkle is executive producer.
Special thanks to curators Ken Lapatin, Judith
Barr, and Hana Sugioka.
Catch you next time!