Glass beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless. Rim short and everted, cracked off and ground; indented body with sides expanding slightly downwards and projecting rounded collar below; hexagonal sides to base with central raised circle, forming flattish but slanting bottom. Cylindrical body has six indentations, curved at top and almost horizontal at bottom, giving body horizontal cross section that appears to be hexagonal. Complete except for one large chip in rim and cracks in side below; pinprick and larger bubbles; dulling and faint iridescent weathering on exterior; patches of soil encrustation and 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