Glass fragmentary bottle

Glass fragmentary bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque pale greyish blue. Cylindrical body with recessed central panel, then cup-shaped below; low circular base with flat lower edge and flat bottom. Three mold seams run down sides to top of prominent horizontal ridge; a separate cup-shaped section forms the lower body and base. Remaining decoration in two registers: on body, central panel divided into three sections by a vertical thrysos-like staff or rod, with bud-like knobs on each end, floral sprays shoot out horizontally from each staff in symmetrical but different designs of ivy, vine, and laurel leaves with berries, with a plain raised band below expanding outwards to prominent horizontal ridge; above the base, a frieze of twenty-four upturned tongues in raised outline, interspersed at top with pointed darts; on bottom, three raised concentric circles, decreasing in thickness towards center, and central small knob. Broken with all of rim, neck, and shoulder missing, and part of central panel; no trace of any handle(s); dulling and slight pitting, patches of thick creamy brown weathering on interior and exterior, much of surfaces covered with dull olive green film, and some iridescence on interior of bottom.

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.