Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque dark purple, with handles in same color; trails in opaque yellow and opaque turquoise blue. Deeply inward-sloping rim-disk; tall cylindrical neck with concave sides; uneven sloping shoulder; top-shaped body; circular base-knob with deep indent on bottom; two vertical strap handles applied to shoulder, drawn up, and pressed onto neck. A yellow trail attached at edge of rim-disk; another yellow trail and an overlapping turquoise blue trail applied to shoulder, wound in a tight spiral around body, ending two-thirds of the way down. Complete, except for most of one handle; broken and repaired around neck; dulling, pitting, and creamy 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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art