Glass mosaic inlay

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Deep purple ground, appearing black; decoration in opaque yellow and red. Rectangular, thin, flat plaque, with slightly beveled edges. Symmetrical lotus and palmette motif, with two long lotus flowers flanked by double spiral volutes and two palmettes at each end; above, continuous wave pattern. Broken and repaired with holes and cracks, and irregular edges; upper side ground and polished; pitted surface bubbles, weathering on edges and back. The inlay is made from two sections cut from the same cane of mosaic glass, with decoration appearing in mirror image.

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