Glass hexagonal bottle

Glass hexagonal bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque white. Rim folded out, round, and in, then pressed into flaring mouth; misshapen cylindrical neck; downward sloping shoulder; hexagonal body with vertical sides, then cup-shaped below; low base with rounded edge and slightly indented bottom. Mold seams run from base of neck, down sides, and meet at center of bottom. Decoration in relief in three registers: on shoulder, six downturned rays or pointed petals; on body, six rectangular panels, each decorated at top with a triangular pediment flanked by prominent but indistinct round objects, framed at sides with posts or slender columns, and bordered below by an egg-and-dart band; in each panel, a different bird perched on or flying over a nest or rock; above the base, twenty-seven upturned tongues (nine in each segment of mold). Intact; pitting, dulling, and thick creamy weathering. This bottle belongs to a type known as the Bird Series because the figures depicted in the pedimented panels appear to be birds perched on or flying over a nest or rock. It is a relatively rare type, although several of the surviving examples are made (as here) in opaque white glass.

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.