Glass oinochoe (perfume jug)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Translucent cobalt blue but with one patch of turquoise blue on neck; applied foot and handle in cobalt blue but with opaque yellow streaks; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue. Applied broad trefoil rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck, slanting forward; broad uneven shoulder, almost horizontal at front; bulbous body curving in towards bottom; applied outsplayed foot with uneven slightly hollow bottom; handle attached in a large flattened pad to outer edge of shoulder over trail decoration, drawn up and out, then turned in, arching above rim-disk, and pressed on to back of neck below rim. Yellow trail, streaked with turquoise blue, attached at edge of rim-disk; an unmarvered yellow trail, also with turquoise streaks, wound once around center of neck; a third yellow trail applied as a broad marvered pad to edge of shoulder and wound down spirally, then tooled around upper body; a turquoise blue trail added over yellow, forming a zigzag pattern; below this, a yellow trail and a thin turquoise trail applied together and wound round in uneven horizontal lines, and a second turquoise trail applied over yellow to form a band around lower body; another yellow trail attached at edge of foot; a small raised knob of yellow applied to bottom of handle. Intact, except for internal cracks in rim-disk and neck; small patches of encrustation and faint 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.