Glass barrel jug

Glass barrel jug

Frontinus

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green; handle in same color. Tubular rim, folded out, round, and in, and flattened on top; slightly uneven cylindrical neck; broad, slightly sloping shoulder; cylindrical body with slightly convex sides; flat bottom, slightly pushed-in at center, with small round pontil mark; broad, flat strap handle attached to top edge of body, drawn up vertically, then turned in and down, and trailed on to underside of rim and top of neck. Body blown into a three-part mold of two vertical sections, extending to base of neck, joined to a disk-shaped base section. Body shaped and decorated like a barrel with three horizontal bands of roughly equal width: a central plain band flanked above and below by bands comprising six continuous horizontal ribs; on bottom, a faint circle around center with indistinct marking outside it, perhaps vestigial lettering. Intact; many pinprick bubbles; small patches of weatehring and faint iridescence. Barrel jug of greenish hue, with one handle.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass barrel jugGlass barrel jugGlass barrel jugGlass barrel jugGlass barrel jug

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.