Glass beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless with pale green tinge; base and trails in same glass. Rim outsplayed, with rounded lip; tall cylindrical body with convex side curving in at bottom; conical base made from separate gather, with hollow splayed foot and knocked-off edge; slight pontil mark on small bottom. Below rim, single horizontal trail; on lower two-thirds of body, four elongated oval loop trails alternating with four similar trails but pinched in at center forming a figure-of-eight pattern, all tooled out at bottom into projecting hanging swags. Intact, except for slight chipping of base; a few pinprick bubbles; dulling and iridescence on exterior, creamy white weathering on interior.

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