Glass Palm Cup with Relief Inscription

Glass Palm Cup with Relief Inscription

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The technique of blowing glass within a mold enabled glassmakers to create vessels decorated with designs or inscriptions in low relief. The inscription on this piece is incomplete, but comparisons with similar vessels suggest that it may have been meant as a cross followed by a request to pray for the maker or owner of the glass.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass Palm Cup with Relief InscriptionGlass Palm Cup with Relief InscriptionGlass Palm Cup with Relief InscriptionGlass Palm Cup with Relief InscriptionGlass Palm Cup with Relief Inscription

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.