Glass mosaic perfume bottle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with marvered trails in opaque white; handles in same colors. Flaring, rounded rim; neck expanding downward to sloping shoulder; bulbous body with side tapering downward; small concave bottom; two handles applied to top of neck and drawn outward, with no trace of attachment on shoulder or body. Trails cover entire vessel with thick swirls on bottom and, on body, bands of fine parallel lines alternating with thick S-shaped trails; a large blue dot appears on one of the S-shaped trails. Cracked around bottom and lower body; most of both handles missing; pitting of surface bubbles, many surfaces scratches, and small areas of brown encrustation, especially around inside of neck.

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