Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white. Deep inward-sloping rim-disk; broad cylindrical neck, tapering upwards; sloping shoulder; top-shaped body; circular base-knob with deep indent on bottom; two strap handles applied in pads to shoulder, drawn up, turned in, and pressed onto neck. Yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail applied in a spiral around top of body in horizontal lines, then tooled into an irregular close-set zigzag pattern around middle of body together with a single white trail; below, a yellow trail wound horizontally twice around lower body. Part of zigzag pattern distorted by cobalt blue overlay. Intact; some white gritty inclusions and one large cracked inclusion on shoulder; slight dulling and some pitting of surface bubbles, but little weathering.

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