Glass finger ring

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Uncertain color, possibly colorless. Ring with large oval bezel and hoop carved out of a single piece of glass; bezel with flat upper surface and sharp edge; hoop D-shaped in cross section with large, irregular oval finger hole. Broken and repaired on one side of bezel and across back of hoop, with chips in outer edge of bezel; pitting of surface bubbles and brilliant iridescent weathering covering all of ring. The large flat bezel once may have been decorated with a painted design.

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