Glass cup

Glass cup

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with greenish tinge. Uneven, knocked-off rim; slightly convex, vertical side, then turned in to bottom with slightly concave center. Deep, wheel-cut horizontal groove immediately below rim, one horizontal wheel-abraded line 3.8 cm down side from rim, and other faint horizontal lines on body. Intact; pinprick bubbles and blowing striations; deep pitting and brilliant iridescence on exterior; thick creamy weathering on interior.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.