
Glass flask
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Translucent blue green. Rounded rim with folded projecting ridge below; flaring mouth; cylindrical neck, slightly expanding downwards; narrow, pushed-in shoulder; globular body; concave bottom. On body, shallow ribs descending in a spiral from right to left from shoulder to mid-point down side, then fading below. Intact; some pinprick and slanting elongated bubbles; dulling, limy encrustation, creamy brown weathering, and iridescence.
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.