Glass jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale blue-green; handle in same color. Rim folded out, over, and in, with beveled inner edge on flaring mouth; broad, funnel-shaped neck, with slight indent at base; elongated piriform body, tooled in to form integral pad base; flat bottom but with uneven indent off-center; strap handle applied as three large claws to top of body, drawn up and out, turned in at sharp angle, and trailed on to top of neck and underside of rim. Intact, but cracks in body; many pinprick bubbles and some blowing striations; pitting, dulling, and milky weathering with iridesence.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art