Cameo glass fragment

Cameo glass fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue with opaque white overlay. Flat underside; top surface with shallow relief decoration. In relief in white, head and upper torso of a naked youthful satyr, facing left with head in profile and back in three-quarter view, and proper right left dropped before him and head slightly raised; he appears to be lifting a large circular object, part of which survives in front of him to the left. Broken on all sides; dulling, slight pitting, patches of creamy weathering and iridescence. The fragment comes from a flat panel of glass, probably a plaque rather than a vessel.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cameo glass fragmentCameo glass fragmentCameo glass fragmentCameo glass fragmentCameo glass fragment

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.