Glass cup

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with pale greenish tinge. Everted rim, folded over and in, and pressed into almost horizontal mouth; cylindrical body with slightly convex side, curving to tubular foot ring, made by folding; flat bottom with low central kick and pontil scar. Body decorated with closely-spaced shallow ribs in a spiral from top left downwards. Intact; bubbles, blowing striations, and some gritty inclusions; dulling, iridescence, and patches of creamy weathering. The cup is said to have been found in a Roman tomb at the ancient site of Caesaromagus in 1863, together with two glass jugs (81.10.168-169) and a coin of the Gallic emperor Postumus, which was minted between A.D. 260 and 268. The two jugs and the cup are said to have been found in a Roman tomb at the ancient site of Caesaromagus in 1863, together with a coin of the Gallic emperor Postumus, which was minted between A.D. 260 and 268. The jugs’ attractive but rather impractical chain handles are distinctive of glassware made in the Rhineland. [Group label: 81.10.85, .168, .169]

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