Glass goblet with snake-thread decoration

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless; trails in opaque white and opaque brownish red, with one red trail starting in translucent greyish green. Slightly everted rim, folded over and in; body expanding downwards, then curving in sharply; solid, cylindrical stem. On body, four indents in side, making squarish shape; one horizontal white trail wound once around upper body; another horizontal white trail wound once around stem on undercurve; over indents on side, four separate snake-thread trails, alternately in white and red, but all in a similar abstract design, starting at left with a horizontal squiggle at top and ending in a long hooked loop at right. Broken with part of stem and all of foot missing, parts of top trail missing, and two internal cracks in side; many pinprick bubbles and blowing striations; slight dulling and iridescence on exterior, patches of thick creamy brown weathering on interior. Snake thread vase with foot; opaque threads.

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