Glass jar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale olive yellow; handles and trail in deep turquoise blue. Rounded, slightly everted rim; below, hollow folded flange; short concave neck; squat globular body; pushed-in bottom with interior kick and large pontil scar at center; two broad rod handles applied in large pads to upper body, drawn up and out, then folded in onto flange, drawn up again, and snipped off on top edge of rim. Trail applied to lower half of body in a zigzag pattern, then wound horizontally once over or just above top of zigzag. Complete, but one crack in rim and upper body, with other smaller cracks in body; pinprick bubbles in body, and larger bubbles in handles and trail; dulling, creamy weathering, and iridescence on exterior, light soil encrustation on interior.

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