Glass two-handled bottle (amphoriskos)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent streaky cobalt blue; handles in translucent pale blue green. Flaring rim, with beveled outer lip; cylindrical neck, expanding downwards and merging with elongated globular body; small, concave bottom; two two-ribbed handles applied at base of neck, with claws extending downwards, drawn up and outwards, then bent in and pressed onto underside of rim and down top of neck. Broken and repaired around lower body, with three holes in side; several glassy inclusions, including a large blob in one handle; patches of brown, enamel-like weathering and dulling on handles.

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