Glass head pendant

Glass head pendant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale blue, with opaque white and yellow, and translucent cobalt blue. Cylindrical with large rod hole at bottom; horizontal rounded edge at back, U-shaped front projecting downwards; applied suspension loop on top of head. Applied twisted headband in cobalt blue; upper half of face in white, with blue and white stratified eyes; beard in pale blue with small circular mouth and ear in yellow. Intact, but missing proper left ear and part of proper right eye; pitting, weathering, and faint iridescence.


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.