Glass hexagonal bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque white. Rim folded out, round, and in, with slightly beveled upper lip; flaring mouth; cylindrical neck; convex curving shoulder; hexagonal body with vertical sides, then cup-shaped below; low base with rounded edge and uneven, slightly indented bottom. Mold seams run from base of neck, down sides, and meet at center of bottom. Decoration in three registers: on shoulder, in blurred relief, six floral motifs; on body, six rectangular panels, each framed at sides with posts or slender columns, and bordered below by a blurred egg-and-dart band; in each panel, a frontal theatrical mask; above the base, alternating rounded and pointed leaves in blurred relief. Signs of cracking and distortion of mold visible on two of the panels. Intact; patches of dulling, thick creamy weathering, and iridescence. The panels are decorated with a series of six masks, identified as a Medusa, a horned Pan, two bearded men, a youth, and a woman.

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