Glass amphoriskos with horizontal ribs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent streaky purple, with handles in translucent blue mixed with yellowish green. Rim folded out, over, and in; cylindrical neck; ovoid body, tapering to pointed bottom; two rod handles attached to upper body in pads, drawn up and in, then pressed onto top of neck and underside of rim. One continuous mold seam around body. Body decorated with twenty-two concentric, horizontal ribs. Intact; many bubbles, some large; very slight weathering and iridescence. [with 17.194.235] These bottles are modeled on the large clay storage jars that were used to transport wine and olive oil. The miniature glass examples have been found in many parts of the Roman Empire, as well as in tombs beyond the eastern frontier in Armenia and Georgia.

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