Glass cameo fragmentary panel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep purple, appearing black with opaque white overlay. Thick, flat panel with part of one tapering edge, grozed and chipped on underside. Broad band in white forming frame along edge; decoration in deep relief, comprising a floral scroll with a large acanthus frond flanked by two scrolls, one filled with a rosette; above the acanthus fond is perched an eagle with curved beak and folded wings. In four conjoining fragments; one large gritty inclusion on underside; pitting, dulling, thick creamy weathering, and iridescence. The fragments come from a large revetment panel decorated with an elaborate acanthus frieze once inhabited by various animals and birds; only an eagle now survives. The size of the panel suggests that it formed part of the architectural decoration of a building. It was probably made in Rome and echoes the floral ornaments that decorated public monuments set up there in the Augustan age. It is so similar to another smaller fragment (18.145.38b) on display in the Study Collection (Gallery 171) that the two pieces may belong together.

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.