Glass hydriske (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white and opaque yellow. Horizontal rim-disk, with rounded edge; tall cylindrical neck, slanting forward; broad horizontal shoulder; ovoid body; applied circular pad-base, with rounded edge and flat bottom; at junction of shoulder and body, two small vertical loop handles; strap handle also applied at junction of shoulder and body in a pad, drawn up and outwards, then turned in and pressed on to underside of rim-disk. An unmarvered blob of yellow on front edge of rim; a white trail attached to bottom of neck and wound across shoulder; a yellow trail, applied over white at shoulder and wound round; then both trails tooled in a close-set zigzag pattern with deep vertical ribs over top half of body, then continuing down in a spiral in three horizontal lines around lower body. Complete, except for most of one handle, and small circular hole surrounded by cracks in lower side of body; dulling and slight pitting, with traces of weathering, especially on trails.

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