Glass ring

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless. Ring with large oval bezel and hoop carved out of a single piece of glass; bezel with beveled outer edge and deep concave face; hoop D-shaped in cross section with irregular, rounded finger hole. Complete except for chip in outer edge of bezel; dulling, pitting, and patches of whitish weathering with brilliant iridescence. Two small fragments of purplish glass attached to top and bottom of oval bezel near edge of concave face. Associated witht the ring is a separate lens-shaped oval gem made out of translucent pale purple blown glass that fits approximately into the concave face of the ring with the convex side facing outward. The gem is intact, has many bubbles, and is covered with pitting and brilliant iridescence.

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