Gold sanguisuga-type fibulae (safety pins) with glass paste bows

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass was a rare and expensive commodity in archaic Italy. A number of fibulae with bows made of glass paste have been excavated at Etruscan sites from Bologna to Veii but all of these have bronze pins and catch plates. Our examples, the only ones known to employ gold, must have significantly enhanced their owner's status.

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