Glass bell beaker

Glass bell beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless. Flaring, rounded rim; bell-shaped body, with side descending in a concave curve to carination near base, then sloping in acutely to small bottom with shallow kick. Intact; many pinprick and some large bubbles, and blowing striations; heavily pitted, and patches of creamy iridescent weathering on exterior, thick, hardened soil encrustation and brownish weathering on interior.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.