Glass cameo cup fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue with overlays in opaque white and translucent dark blue. Vertical rim with everted lip and beveled inner edge; cylindrical body with slightly convex curving side. On interior, horizontal groove below rim; on exterior, in relief female figure in white, probably standing, facing left and holding up in front of her in both hands a large oval object, perhaps a drum or tambourine; her head is in profile with her hair in blue overlay arranged in a fringe and thick hanging tresses at back; on the left are the tips of two leafy sprays or branches. Rim fragment with chip at left, broken at sides and bottom; dulling, slight pitting, whitish weathering on exterior, and faint iridescence. Rotary grinding marks 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