Glass mosaic bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colorless, translucent purple, cobalt blue, turquoise blue, green, honey yellow, and semi-opaque white on body; color(s) of base ring uncertain. Horizontal everted rim with rounded edge; carinated side, with two convex curves, the upper being narrower and slightly angular, the lower being deeper and more rounded; convex bottom within applied outsplayed base ring with rounded edge. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of monchrome canes in different colors. Broken and repaired, with one hole in side; many pinprick bubbles; deep pitting, dulling, and brilliant iridescent weathering. Small bowls of this shape were also made in silver and red-slipped Roman pottery.

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