Glass head of Zeus Sarapis

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque deep red. Solid block. Carved in the round: bearded head with hair arranged in long flowing locks, ending in curls around neck, well-defined eyes with eyelids and pupils, and bushy beard covering lower half of face. Broken, with unweathered chip on nose, a large weathered break across lower proper left side of face, a large weathered circular patch on top of head (probably where a polos or crown has been broken off), and a jagged scar over proper right eye; green copper weathering surface. The red glass has acquired a green patina.

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