Glass beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with light green tinge. Rim short and everted, cracked off and ground; cylindrical body with sides expanding slightly downwards, then curving in sharply to integral, thick pad base; flat bottom with central circular indent. Traces of horizontal cut line on upper part of body. Broken and repaired, with two chips in rim and large cracks in body; pinprick bubbles; deep pitting, thick creamy brown weathering, and brillant iridescence on exterior; soil encrustation and thick weathering 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