Glass cinerary urn with lid
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Urn: Translucent blue green; handles in same color. Collar rim, folded out, down, round, up, and in, and smoothed into side of mouth; funnel-shaped neck; sloping shoulder; piriform body; splayed hollow foot; deep concave bottom; two vertical, arched, inverted U-shaped handles, attached on opposite sides of upper body, each made of a thick trail, applied as a large circular pad, drawn across body from left to right, and trailed off back along top of handle. Intact; few bubbles; slight dulling, limy encrustation, and iridescent weathering. Lid: Translucent blue green. Horizontal, rounded rim; outer side flat, then cone-shaped, extending into short, hollow cylindrical stem; circular knob at top with downturned projecting flange and irregular hole at center. Intact; a few pinprick bubbles; slight dulling, limy encrustation, and iridescent weathering. The lid fits snugly in the mouth of the urn and has the same weathering, suggesting that they belong together. The majority of glass cinerary urns come from Roman cemeteries in Italy or the northwest provinces, where cremation was the preferred form of burial in the Early Imperial period. This example, however, was reportedly found in a tomb in North Africa.
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.