
Glass skyphos (drinking cup)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Colorless with pale greenish tinge. Slightly inverted rim, with top edge ground flat; convex curving side tapering downward; splayed base ring with rounded bottom edge; slightly undulating, flat bottom; two ring handles applied to sides of body, carved out from blanks surrounded by raised squared-off areas, with flat thumb-rests above rings and projecting wings above and below. Body broken and repaired, with one large chip in rim and several holes in body, but both handles intact; pinprick and larger bubbles; dulling, pitting, patches of iridescence and creamy weathering. Rotary grinding marks on interior, exterior, and bottom.
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.