Glass amphora (jar)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Translucent yellow green; handles in same color Everted tubular rim, folded over and in; broad, cylindrical neck; convex bulging shoulder; elongated ovoid body tapering to a point; two rod handles applied as pads on shoulder, drawn up and slightly out, then turned in horizontally and pressed on to top of neck and underside of rim. Thirty-four close-set horizontal ribs, extending from shoulder to lower body, then a plain band before a narrow group comprising one prominent horizontal rib flanked above and below by another shallower rib. Base or foot missing and crack in top of one handle, otherwise intact; a few bubbles; some dulling, faint weathering, and iridescence on exterior, soil encrustation and iridescent weathering on interior. Probably made in a three-part mold, comprising two side elements extending from neck to bottom of main ribbing on body and a cup-shaped bottom. It is uncertain whether the vessel had a knob base or a foot, but the former is more probable. This is an unusually large mold-blown glass vessel, for which no parallel is known. But the quality of the piece suggests that it may be associated with a leading workshop, such as that of Ennion. Three of his products are displayed in the adjacent Augustan gallery.
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.