Glass aryballos (oil bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thick-walled oil bottle Translucent yellow green; handles in same color. Rim folded out, over, and in, and flattened on top; cylindrical neck, flaring out at base to join squat, globular body; rounded bottom; two handles applied to top of body in large pads, drawn up, folded in, and pressed on to top of neck and underside of rim. Body intact, but one handle broken and repaired; one large chip missing from rim; chip with weathering breaks missing from lower pad of each handle; some bubbles and glassy inclusions; dulling, pitting, and iridescence, with some creamy weathering.

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