Glass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captives

Glass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captives

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale blue green and opaque light blue. Rectangular, thick, flat plaque, with major axis vertical; straight upper edges in light blue, with projecting rough edge and grozed back in blue green. Decoration in high relief: part of trophy, comprising a draped figure with a sword slung diagonally across the waist; on proper left arm, outstretched horizontally, is suspended an large oval shield, from behind which protrudes to right a standard with a quadruped standing in profile to left; below to right, the upper half of a draped female figure stands facing three-quarters to left; on shield a central frontal bucranium within a double circle with radiating spokes and above and below two sets of two linked rings. Fragment with weathered broken edges; left edge and small part of top edge remaining; dulling, pitting, and whitish weathering on front, of upper surface; iridescence on back.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captivesGlass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captivesGlass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captivesGlass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captivesGlass plaque fragment depicting a trophy and captives

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.