Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque dark red brown, appearing black, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and turquoise blue. Broad horizontal rim-disk with beveled edge; short cylindrical neck, tapering upwards; narrow rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body, tapering upwards; convex bottom; two large vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration; one longer than the other. Intermingled yellow and turquoise blue trails attached at edge of rim-disk; a large yellow trail applied unevenly to neck together with a turquoise trail, overlaid on the yellow; both wound in a close-set spiral around body to bottom; yellow trail ending in a swirl on bottom; one small unmarvered blob of red brown on side near handle. Intact, except for one small chip in underside of rim-disk; some deep weathering of trails on body; dulling and pitting, but very little 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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art