Glass jar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale yellowish green, with purple streaks. Plain, rounded rim; flaring neck; conical body, rounded at base; flat bottom, with kick at center. Thick, heavy glass. Single horizontal trail wound unevenly three times around upper body, then spiral up to end below rim; on body, spiral pattern of pre-inflated molded ribs Intact; pinprick and several large bubbles; little exterior weathering; soil encrustion with weathering and iridescence on interior.

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