Glass oinochoe (perfume jug)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque white, with handle and foot in same color but with some purple streaks; trails in translucent purple. Applied broad trefoil rim-disk, with edge of mouth projecting above inside of rim-disk; short, slightly-square shaped, concave neck; broad sloping shoulder; large ovoid body; applied outsplayed foot with uneven slightly convex bottom; handle attached as a large flattened pad to top of body over trail decoration, drawn up and slightly out, then turned in, arching well above rim-disk, then down and pressed on to back of neck below rim. One trail attached at edge of rim-disk; a second thick trail wound horizontally twice around shoulder and top of body, then tooled into a close-set zigzag pattern around upper half of body; below this, a third, fine trail wound horizontally three times around body; finally, a fourth unmarvered trail wound around edge of foot. Intact; some dulling and pitting, and patches of iridescent creamy brown 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