Glass jug
Ennion
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Translucent deep honey brown; handle in opaque white. Outsplayed rim, folded up and in, forming collar on inside of mouth; cylindrical neck with short vertical projecting ridge at top; sloping shoulder; piriform body, tapering downwards; flat bottom; handle with two prominent ribs attached to shoulder, drawn up and outwards, then turned in at a right angle, folded up to form loop above rim and then dropped onto rim and top of neck. Decoration comprises four registers on neck and body, divided by ridges and raised horizontal lines: on neck, vertical flutes rounded at both ends; in frieze on shoulder and upper body, continuous floral spray with upturned spikes, forming circular frames for six downturned palmettes with outward facing leaves, alternating with six downturned palmettes with inward facing leaves; around middle section of body, frieze filled with net pattern, broken on one side by a tabula ansata containing a Greek inscription; on lower body, vertical flutes, rounded at top, with spikes projecting upward between flutes; on bottom, deep, small kick with central knob. Intact, but slight indent in top of side near handle; slight dulling and pitting, patches of creamy weathering and iridescence. Neck and upper body blown in a three-part mold, with mold marks extending to ridge below frieze with net pattern; separate cup-shaped mold for lower body 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.