Glass jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep blue green; handle, foot ring, and trails in same color, but foot ring also slightly streaked with opaque red brown. Rim folded over and into flaring mouth; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; globular body; low foot ring, applied as a coil; small, flat bottom, with pontil scar; three-ribbed strap handle, attached to upper body with long downward claws, drawn up, out, round, and in, and attached to edge of rim over trail, with projecting hollow loop. One thicker trail wound horizontally one and a half times around underside of mouth; a finer trail applied next to foot ring, then wound up in a spiral ten times, ending under handle; five more fine trails wound in short spirals in irregular bands on neck. Intact; pinprick bubbles and some glassy inclusions; slight dulling and encrustation, with faint weathering and iridescence on exterior, patches of pale brown soil encrustation and brilliant iridescent weathering on interior.

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