Glass beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with purple streaks below rim. Knocked-off rim; almost straight sides to body, tapering downward; concave bottom. Thick walled. Wheel-cut decoration on body in four bands, comprising a deep groove and faint lines below rim; two parallel lines; a deep groove falnked above and below by a single line; and two more parallel lines near bottom. Intact; pinprick bubbles; patches of dulling, pitting, and iridescent 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