Glass mosaic inlay

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue ground; decoration in opaque white, yellow, red, and greyish green. Circular, flat, and very thin plaque. Symmetrical lily and palmette motif arranged around a central six-petaled rosette, with six palmettes with spiral volutes below forming a star-shaped frame to the central rosette, alternating with six lilies in solid white. Cracked and repaired with two minor chips on edge; upper and underside and edge ground and polished; pitted surface bubbles. These inlays, despite their different shapes and colors, all have the same basic pattern, comprising palmettes and lilies or lotus flowers. Although probably of Egyptian origin, such inlays were popular in Rome, and similar designs are found in Roman decorative arts.

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