Glass hexagonal bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent patchy blue, with deep blue handles. Everted rim, with rounded and partially folded lip; cylindrical neck with wider band at top; convex shoulder; hexagonal body with elongated cross section, tapering downward; uneven, flat bottom; rod handles attached in pads to shoulder, drawn up, turned in and pressed onto top of neck. One continuous mold seam around body, extending up neck, but misaligned causing ridge across bottom. On shoulder, six lunettes in raised outline, each containing a triangular pattern of three small circular bosses; on body, six oblong panels, framed by four horizontal ribs at top and two horizontal ribs at bottom; each half of mold has a matching set of three panels, comprising : a stylized palm frond flanked by inward-facing scroll patterns. Intact; pinprick bubbles; pitting, iridescence, patches of weathering, and slight soil encrustation. Blue Sidonian jug with two handles.

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