Glass beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with blue green tinge; foot ring in translucent cobalt blue. Outsplayed, knocked-off rim; tall cylindrical body, tapering slightly downwards, then slanting inwards; applied solid foot ring, made by applying trail around edge of bottom; low kick in bottom. Side decorated with continuous band of closely spaced shallow ribs in a downward spiral from left to right, extending from below rim to point where body slants inwards; in plain band below rim and above ribs, two horizontal wheel-abraded lines; on slanting lower section of body, a band of two horizontal wheel-abraded lines and then below another single horizontal wheel-abraded line. Broken and repaired, with some small holes in lower body; pinprick bubbles; dulling, limy encrustation, weathering, and iridescence.

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