Glass perfume bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent purple. Everted rim, folded over and in, flattened unevenly on upper surface; cylindrical neck with slight tooling indent around base; globular body; flat bottom. On upper body, a band of three concentric wheel-cut lines, comprising two fine lines flanking a central broader line. Intact; many bubbles and blowing striations; pitting and brilliant iridescence on exterior, soil encrustation and weathering on interior.

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