Glass dish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep emerald green. Rim folded out and down, forming collar around top of side; shallow side, bulging slightly downwards, and then turned sharply in to pushed-in floor; solid, low outsplayed foot ring; slightly concave bottom. Complete but cracked around side with small chips missing; pinprick and a few larger bubbles; patches of dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering. Deeply colored monochrome glass was very popular in the early Roman blown-glass industry, and it was only after about A.D. 50 that colorless and naturally colored blue-green glass came into widespread use.

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