Glass bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless. Knocked-off vertical rim with slight bulge below; hemispherical body; slightly flattened bottom. Wheel-cut decoration in two registers on side, with lower extending across bottom: upper register comprises eight round shallow facets, each surrounded by a circular groove, interspersed with stylized columns made up of a vertical thin groove and oval facets at top and bottom; lower register comprises six round shallow facets interspersed with hanging swags topped by oval facets and with vertical grooves below, forming a star-like pattern around a round shallow facet surrounded by a circular groove on bottom. Intact; few bubbles but blowing striations; dulling, slight pitting on bottom, iridescence, and creamy brown weathering. The linear and facet-cut decoration on this glass bowl resembles the patterns found on Roman silver plate, notably on some bowls in the Chaourse Treasure, buried for safekeeping during the devastating raids into Gaul by the Alemanni and the Franks in the years after A.D. 250.

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