Glass bowl in blue and colorless bands

Glass bowl in blue and colorless bands

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue and colorless. Plain rounded rim; slightly convex side tapering diagonally downward; convex bottom. Two large segments of blue fused to either side of a broad central strip of colorless glass. On interior, a band below rim, comprising a narrow horizontal groove and a ridge, undercut below, and further down side a broader band comprising a narrow groove, followed below by a broader groove, a central slightly raised plain band, undercut below, and finally another narrow groove. Broken and repaired, with several large areas missing, especially on rim and bottom; pinprick bubbles; dulling, pitting, and iridescent creamy weathering. Rotary grinding marks on interior and exterior. Very few bicolored glass vessels survive from antiquity. Apart from this bowl, most examples are slender alabastra (perfume vases). All appear to be in the same combination of translucent cobalt blue and colorless glass, and it is likely that they were all made in the same workshop. The glass was fused, placed over a mold, ground, and then polished.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass bowl in blue and colorless bandsGlass bowl in blue and colorless bandsGlass bowl in blue and colorless bandsGlass bowl in blue and colorless bandsGlass bowl in blue and colorless bands

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.