Glass oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green; applied trail in same color. Projecting oval nozzle with wick hole; circular body with sloping, slightly concave shoulder, separated from the discus by a single groove; plain discus, deeply pressed in at center; raised outer flange below shoulder, then sides curving in to rounded base with deeply pressed-in center; integral projecting oval boss at rear, opposite nozzle, to which a solid, thick trail has been applied to form a handle. Broken and repaired, with part of discus missing and weathered breaks on nozzle and handle; many bubbles; slight dulling and iridescence, with patches of thick, yellow limy weathering, especially at front of body and on nozzle, and smaller areas of soil encrustation. No filler hole is visible but must have been located towards rear of discus behind the central point where the discus and bottom have been pressed together. Most Roman oil lamps were made of terracotta or bronze. Glass examples are relatively rare; this one is particularly interesting because it copies the shape of mold-made terracotta lamps fairly closely—even down to the decoration on the nozzle.

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