Glass mosaic relief fragment

Glass mosaic relief fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque sealing wax red ground; decoration in opaque white, yellow, and red, and translucent blue, light blue and deep purple, appearing black. Thick block, with slightly convex side edge at bottom and another edge with rounded upper lip at top right. Decoration all set in yellow frames; narrow horizontal stripe along bottom in blue, white, and red; vertical panel comprising three squares divided by horizontal bands in blue, yellow, and red; at top, blue and white horizontal stripes; at right, radiating stripes in two alternating designs, one of hollow yellow circles on a purple ground, the other of lotus buds in white and blue. Broken edges at top, left, and lower right; slight pitting but very little weathering. This fragment can be identified from its similarity to other pieces as part of the ornate patterned dress of a figure, probably a god or a pharaoh.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.