Glass cinerary urn with lid
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Urn: Translucent blue green; handles in same color. Everted rim, folded down, round, up, and in, and flattened in to mouth, forming a solid, angular collar; flaring mouth; narrow, concave neck; large, piriform body; splayed hollow foot; concave bottom; two vertical, arched M-shaped handles, attached on opposite sides of upper body, each made of a thick trail, applied as a large circular pad, drawn across body from left to right, and trailed off back along top of handle. Broken and repaired, with holes in rim, body, and foot; pinprick bubbles and a few glassy inclusions; dulling, some pitting, patches of thick iridescent weathering, and small areas of soil encrustation. Lid: Translucent blue green. Thin, plain, horizontal rim; concentric ridge near rim on exterior; shallow dome-shaped side; hollow stem, tapering upwards to flattened, oval knob with thick, downturned lip; small, tooled indent in center of knob on top. Complete, but some internal cracks and chips in knob; some pinprick bubbles; slight dulling, iridescence, and creamy brown weathering on exterior, pitting, iridescence, and whitish weathering covering most of interior. The lid is much smaller than the rim of the urn and does not sit tightly in the mouth. It may, however, originally have been placed upside down like a funnel lid.
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.