Floral plaque

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass plaques were employed in the Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean world to decorate walls, screens, and furnishings. This particular fresh and exuberant floral type was popular chiefly in Egypt and was probably manufactured in Middle Egypt. Panels of this sort, which are thought to have originally been up to six inches tall and just under three inches wide, exhibit a characteristic set of vegetal motifs. While correlations to actual species are difficult to make, three nelumbo lotus flowers can be identified at the bottom of this plaque, and what appear to be two grape clusters are recognizable at either side of the fanlike group of leaves in the center. The plaque was made by fusing cross sections of mosaic canes, colored strips, and chips of bluish green glass, with an added backing of chips and waste glass for thickening. The front was then ground and polished to smoothness. The slight translucency of the matrix glass is an effect of backlighting and would not have been apparent when the panel was set in place

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art