Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue with same color handles and base-knob; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white. Uneven horizontal rim-disk with rounded edge; tall cylindrical neck; sloping shoulder; small ovoid body; large coiled base-knob applied to pointed bottom; two vertical strap handles applied to top of body in pads, drawn up and slightly outward, then turned in and attached to top of neck and underside of rim-disk. A yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk and wound spirally over neck and shoulder, tooled into a narrow zigzag band with close-set vertical indents around top of body, then wound spirally down body in five turns, ending underneath base-knob; a white trail is added on neck and wound spirally, mingling with the yellow trail to lower part of body. Intact; most of white trail completely weathered, leaving only a linear impression in body; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.

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