Glass cantharus (drinking cup)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue; handles in same color. Flaring, rounded rim, with folded solid flange below; bell-shaped body, carving in sharply to solid, short stem; low, splayed foot, formed from a separate gather with knocked-off and ground outer edge; uneven, flat bottom; low kick at center of inside of body; strap handles attached to lower sides of body in pads, tooled flat above, drawn up and outwards, then curved round and down in a loop above rim, and applied to lip and underside of rim. Complete, but repaired on rim at junction of both handles, with one small chip and rim and one larger chip on underside of edge of foot; some bubbles, elongated horizontally around rim; dulling, some pitting of surface bubbles, iridescent weathering, and small patches of limy encrustation. This is an early type of wineglass and would have graced the table of a wealthy Roman at a dinner or drinking party. Most surviving examples are recorded from sites in the northwestern provinces, but this cup is said to be from the city of Rome.

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