Glass beaker

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent light green. Unworked, knocked-off rim; cylindrical body with deep concave sides; slight convex bottom. Two vertical mold seams run down sides, with a separate shallow disk-shaped base section. On body, two friezes, bordered above and below by two horizontal ridges and divided by a band of three horizontal ridges; in upper frieze, wreath pattern in four sections with sprays facing in alternating directions; on lower frieze, continuous ivy tendril with leaves on long stems above and below wavy stem; on bottom, rounded broad base ring with inner ring surrounding a double-set small ring at center forming overlapping figure-of-eight. Intact; pinprick bubbles; pitting, patches of whitish weathering, and iridescence.

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