Glass jar with two handles (amphora)

Glass jar with two handles (amphora)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with pale yellow tinge; same color handle and ribs. Horizontal rim, folded round and in; flaring mouth; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; rounded shoulder; piriform body, tapering downwards; outsplayed tubular foot rim, made by folding; deep kick in bottom; two thin strap handles, pressed onto shoulder, with thick projecting pads below, drawn out and up, curved in, and applied to underside of mouth and rim. On body, extending from shoulder almost to foot ring, eighteen irregular ribs, some vertical, some slanting, and other curved. Intact; few bubbles; dulling, slight pitting, creamy weathering, and iridescence on exterior, patches of thick black weathering and brilliant iridescence on interior.

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.