Glass bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent emerald green. Short, outsplayed rim with beveled edge; carinated side, with two convex curves, the upper being shallow and the lower deep; slightly convex bottom within outsplayed base ring with flat edge. Intact; pinprick bubbles; dulling, some pitting, and faint iridescent weathering. Rotary grinding marks on interior, exterior, and bottom. These small cast bowls are modeled in shape on Roman silverware and Arretine pottery. Likewise, the brilliant emerald green color appears to be an innovation of the Roman glass industry itself. This was probably based in Italy, although examples of such bowls, either in mosaic glass or in monochrome versions of both translucent and opaque glass, are found thoroughout the Roman world.

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