Glass modiolus (one-handled drinking cup)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue; handle in same color; blobs in opaque white and yellow; trail in opaque white. Rim outsplayed with rounded lip; broad sloping collar below, then curving in to cylindrical body, tapering downwards with slightly convex side; hollow folded foot ring at junction of side and bottom; bottom convex around edge but concave at center; two-ribbed strap handle, applied in an arched pad to upper body, drawn up and round in a loop, and pressed onto undercurve of collar. Trail wound around top of rim; surface covered with round and elongated blobs. Broken and repaired around rim and upper body, with patches of restoration and one remaining chip in rim; severe pitting, dulling, iridescence, and creamy weathering especially on white blobs and trail. Vessels of this shape are known in silver and pottery as well as glass. The shape resembles that of a measuring cup, from which the name modiolus derives. But the rich ornamentation found on many of these cups—as here the polychrome blobbed decoration—indicates that they were used as luxury tableware. Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881 (81.10.93)

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