Glass cameo panel fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep purple, appearing black with opaque white overlay. Thick, flat panel. Decoration in deep relief, comprising a floral scroll with tendrils and leaves. Broken on all sides with weathered edges; one large weathered bubble on surface; pitting, dulling, thick creamy weathering, and iridescence. This is part of a large revetment panel decorated with acanthus scrolls, similar to another fragment (18.145.38a) on display in the Augustan Gallery (Gallery 166). Indeed, it may well belong to the same panel.

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