Glass Frontinus barrel jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with pale greyish green tinge, with handles in same color. Rim folded out, round, and in; flaring mouth; uneven cylindrical neck, expanding downwards; broad, sloping shoulder; cylindrical body with slightly convex vertical side; slightly concave bottom with central pontil scar; two broad strap handles with ribs on either edge attached on opposite sides of shoulder, drawn up, then turned in horizontally to top of neck, with trail extending backwards along underside of mouth and rim. Two prominent vertical mold seams run down side from top to bottom, with a separate disk-shaped base section. On body, side divided into three horizontal bands of roughly equal width; top and bottom bands have six continuous horizontal ribs; central band is plain; on bottom, outer flat ring with faint lettering, and two raised concentric circles. Complete except for large weathered chip in rim; pinprick bubbles; soil encrustation, dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering. On the base is the inscription FRON.

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