Glass jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent streaky pale purple, with handle in uncertain color. Rim, folded out, over, and in; broad flaring mouth; slender cylindrical neck; convex curving shoulder; cylindrical body, expanding downwards, then cup-shaped lower section; low circular base, with rounded edge and bottom concave at center; rod handle attached in a pad to shoulder, drawn up, round, and in, and folded onto underside of rim with slight fold above rim. A mold seam runs down sides; a separate cup-shaped section probably forms the lower body and base. On shoulder, frieze of indistinct downturned raised tongues and twenty-eight upturned raised tongues on lower body, joined by a broad central band of two facing horizontal laurel sprays with matching pairs of leaves and berries, bordered above and below by a single raised line. Most of rim and part of neck missing; many pinprick bubbles; deep pitting and brilliant iridescence on exterior, creamy weathering on handle.

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