Glass finger ring

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue. Solid hoop, flat on both sides, with projecting shoulders, and flat rectangular bezel; circular shape to inside of hoop. On bezel, engraved long object, perhaps a leaf, tapering to one end; on shoulders, comic masks carved in relief, with hair on edges on bezel, sunken eyes, broad nose, large round mouth and long beard extending around outside of hoop. Intact, but with a few tiny chips on inside edge of hoop; a few bubbles; dulling, surface scratches, and faint weathering.

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