Glass beads

Glass beads

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque white, opaque green and turquoise blue in various different shades, and translucent turquoise green. String of 88 green or blue and 17 white beads of various shapes and sizes, mainly globular or short cylindrical, but with one elongated melon bead with tooled indents along each side, and all having a large threadhole. All of the beads are intact; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass beadsGlass beadsGlass beadsGlass beadsGlass beads

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.