Glass amphoriskos (flask)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent yellow, with one handle in purple and the other in pale blue green. Everted rim, partially tubular and folded over and in, and pressed into flaring mouth; short cylindrical neck; globular body, with small indent in one side; projecting circular base with flat bottom; rod handles applied to top of body in a pad, drawn up and out, then curved in a trailed onto edge and underside of rim and top of neck. One continuous, slightly misaligned mold seam running from neck down body and across bottom in a ridge. On body, friezes of radiating lines in relief, twenty-nine above and thirty-two below, a central band of tendril scrolls, different in each half of mold, bordered above and below by a single horizontal raised line. Intact; pinprick bubbles; large patches of weathering and iridescence on interior.

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