Glass jar with two handles (amphora)

Glass jar with two handles (amphora)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with yellowish tinge; handles and trails in same color . Everted, beveled rim; flaring mouth; broad, cylindrical neck, tapering slightly downwards; sloping shoulder; side tapering downwards; tubular, outsplayed base ring, made by folding; pushed-in bottom; two strap handles applied to top of neck, drawn out and up, then turned sharply downwards vertically, and trailed off on shoulder over trail decoration. Irregular pattern of pairs of vertical trails, extending from neck to lower body, pinched together at intervals. Broken and repaired, with one chip in rim and two small holes in neck; a few bubbles and glassy inclusions; slight dulling and weathering, and faint iridescence covering most of surfaces. The decoration was applied with molten threads of glass which fused with and were partially absorbed by the body of the amphora.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass jar with two handles (amphora)Glass jar with two handles (amphora)Glass jar with two handles (amphora)Glass jar with two handles (amphora)Glass jar with two handles (amphora)

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.