Glass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifs

Glass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Deep cobalt blue ground, appearing black; decoration in opaque white, yellow, and red, and other, uncertain colors. Thin, flat plaque, with rough, uneven back. Floral motif with individual plants picked out in detail on ground, including a poppy seed head and a long ear of wheat. Broken on all sides, with weathered edges; dulling, pitting and pale creamy weathering on upper side, iridescence on underside. The attractive polychromy of the floral designs on this fragment are now masked by a layer of brownish surface weathering.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifsGlass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifsGlass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifsGlass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifsGlass mosaic plaque fragment with floral motifs

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.