Glass amphoriskos with band of scrolls

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale purple, with handle in translucent pale yellow green. Uneven tubular rim, folded out, over, and in; neck flaring downward; ovoid body; cylindrical base, with flat but uneven bottom; small rod handle attached in a pad to shoulder, drawn up, round, and in, and folded onto lower part of neck. One continuous mold seam around body and across bottom, but edges of molds not carefully aligned. On body, frieze of indistinct downturned raised tongues on upper body and twenty-five upturned raised tongues on lower body, joined by a central band of tendril scrolls bordered above and below by two horizontal raised lines. One handle missing and hole in shoulder where it was once attached; few bubbles; faint iridescence on exterior, soil encrustation, whitish weathering, and brilliant iridescence 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