Glass barrel-shaped jar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with green tinge; trails in same color. Thick, everted, rounded rim, misshapen on one side; side slanting out to convex mid-point on body, then slanting in to solid low base ring; uneven bottom with low central kick and prominent pontil mark. One trail applied to side above mid-point and wound from left to right in a spiral 7 times up body, ending under rim; another trail applied to side just below mid-point and wound from right to left in a spiral 6½ times down body, ending on edge of base. Intact; some bubbles and a few black impurities; slight dulling, creamy weathering, and iridescence. The trails around the body are meant to represent the hoops around a wooden barrel.

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