Glass gold-band mosaic bead

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent dark-colored ground, possibly blue (?) appearing black; mosaic bands in translucent turquoise green, cobalt blue, honey yellow, opaque white, and colorless with gold leaf. Biconical with convex-curving side, pierced vertically; ground layer thick at one end forming a narrow collar; mosaic overlay extending to edge of hole at the other. Mosaic pattern in differently-colored parallel strips: turquoise partially layered with white, colorless enclosing gold-leaf, blue with central white stripe, yellow flanked with white; repeated three times in a spiral. Complete, except for chipping at one end and some surface cracks; slight weathering, iridescence, pitting, and dulling.

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