Glass squat alabastron (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque white. Very broad, thick rim-disk, made as a spiral coil around top of neck; cylindrical neck, tapering downwards; sloping shoulder; slightly elongated bell-shaped cylindrical body; almost flat bottom; on upper body, two vertical ring handles, with long tapering tails, applied over trail pattern. A yellow trail attached at upper edge of rim-disk; on body, alternating bands of yellow and white, tooled from top of body to undercurve at bottom into a regular feather pattern in twelve vertical panels with alternating upward and downward strokes, forming vertical indents in sides and large round loops at bottom and bottom. Body complete, but rim-disk broken and repaired, with part missing; dulling, pitting, and creamy iridescent weathering. Squat alabastra such as these are unusual. The highly weathered surfaces–the result of their being buried in the ground–have obscured the colors and decoration.

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