Glass ornament in the shape of a fish

Glass ornament in the shape of a fish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue; trails and blobs in opaque red and opaque white. Solid cylindrical body tooled at front to make a large open mouth, tapering to point at back; under body, cylindrical stem and a larger circular pad. Decoration comprises a white trail wound vertically four times round body in an irregular spiral, two white blobs for eyes, a red trail applied to mouth as lips, two red blobs behind eyes perhaps for gills, and a red flattened vertical dorsal fin applied over spiral trail; on circular pad, four red blobs on outer edge in a square pattern. Fish complete apart from tail and part of spiral trail, and part of pad and one blob missing; dulling, slight pitting, and thick creamy weathering with patches of iridescence. The ornament may have been attached to the side of a beaker or cup.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass ornament in the shape of a fishGlass ornament in the shape of a fishGlass ornament in the shape of a fishGlass ornament in the shape of a fishGlass ornament in the shape of a fish

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.