Glass gold-band mosaic alabastron (perfume bottle)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Translucent cobalt blue, colorless, translucent turquoise blue, translucent honey brown, opaque white, and gold leaf. Plain vertical rim, ground flat on top edge; recessed band below to receive neck and rim attachment; biconical body, expanding downwards to midway point, then slanting in to pointed bottom. Gold-band mosaic pattern formed from serpentine lengths of two different canes in combinations of blue and turquoise outlined in white, with one having a band in brown backed with white, the other having a band in colorless encasing shattered gold leaf. The gold-band canes are repeated twice over the body. Broken and repaired, with areas on fill around upper half of body; slight dulling, pitting of surface bubbles, faint iridescent weathering on body, and thick creamy weathering on rim, recessed band, and interior. This is an unusually large gold-band alabastron with a rare pointed shape. Attached to the top was a detachable neck piece or stopper that is now lost. The neck piece had a broad, flat rim and was usually made in a different monochrome glass. A complete example can be seen in the Hellenistic Treasury.
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.