Glass mosaic fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Body fragment. Translucent turquoise blue, partially layered with opaque yellow and appearing green, purple, opaque white and yellow, and colorless. Shallow curving side or bottom. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of three canes: one in a purple ground with a hollow white circle and a central white rod; a second in a colorless ground with a large white spiral around a central purple ground containing a yellow rod, and the third in a turquoise blue ground with a yellow spiral. Polished exterior; deep pitting of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering on interior and jagged edges.

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