Glass head pendant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Semi-opaque deep turquoise blue, with additions in opaque yellow and white, and translucent cobalt blue. Cylindrical with rod hole at bottom; plain back with large vertical tooled groove; short U-shaped front projecting downwards; almost flat on top; small suspension loop applied at front on top of head. Applied band of hair in two rows of curls across forehead in cobalt blue; upper half of face in yellow, with blue and white stratified eyes, prominent arched blue eyebrows, large hooked nose with nostrils as small applied blobs to either side, large yellow ears flanked above and below with white earrings; beard in blue with small mouth with protruding lips. Intact, but chip in suspension loop; slight pitting and weathering, with encrustation inside rod hole.

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