Ennion was one of the most prominent glassworkers of Ancient Rome, active from about 1 to 50 CE.
Ennion his work by signing them.
His works of art in glass (various vessels) were traded throughout the Mediterranean and were in great demand among the wealthy Romans. To date, only about fifty specimens have been preserved, which were found at various archeological sites from Spain to Israel.
Biography
Ennion probably lived and worked in the city of
Sidon, in the province of
Roman Syria (today's
Lebanon).
Although his name was Semitic in origin, he signed his work in Greek, the
lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean in his time.
He is thought to have been a
, and some scholars believe that later in life, with growing fame and demand, he moved to the north Italian city of
Aquileia, closer to
Rome and its markets.
Mold-blown glass
Ennion is the first known maker (and/or workshop owner
[Wall Street Journal, July 18–19, 2015, page C13, A Wine Jug That's Fit for a Roman Feast or a Brooklyn Banquet]) of decorated mold-blown glass, a technique based on blowing bubbles of molten glass into molds.
He was renowned for producing multi-panelled mold-blown glass vessels that were complex in their shapes, arrangement and decorative motifs.
[Price, J. (1991). "Decorated Mould-Blown Glass Tablewares in the First Century AD". In M. Newby & K. Painter (eds.) Roman Glass: Two Centuries of Art and Invention. pp. 56–75. The Society of Antiquaries of London: London ][Tatton-Brown, V. (1991). "The Roman Empire". In H. Tait (ed.) Five Thousand Years of Glass. pp. 62–97. British Museum Press: London ] The complexity of designs of these mold-blown glass vessels illustrated the sophistication of the glassworkers in the eastern regions of the Roman Empire. Mold-blown glass vessels manufactured by the workshops of Ennion and other contemporary glassworkers such as Jason, Nikon, Aristeas, and Meges, constitutes some of the earliest evidence of glassblowing found in the eastern territories.
[Höricht, L.A.S. (1991). "Syrian Elements among the Glass from Pompeii". In M. Newby & K. Painter (eds.) Roman Glass: two centuries of art and invention. pp. 76–85. The Society of Antiquaries of London: London ]
