Glass cup

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale blue green. Rim slightly outsplayed, cracked off, and ground flat; slightly convex sides expanding downwards to rounded carination, then curves in sharply to bottom with slightly pushed-in central circle. Band of horizontal wheel-cut decoration above carination, comprising two thin lines flanking a broad, deeper groove. Intact; few bubbles and blowing striations; dulling and small patches of iridescence weathering on exterior, milky white weathering on interior with thick layer of soil encrustation on bottom.

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