Glass mosaic face bead

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque red ground, with details in opaque yellow, white, red, and grayish green, and translucent purple, appearing black. Section of an irregular oval mosaic composite bar; flat with rough edges; hole diagonally through bead. Circular face, distorted on one side; hair rendered as alternating vertical black and white stripes on forehead; almond-shaped eyes, eyebrows, nose, and round mouth with red lips; green stripe around chin. Intact; slight dulling and pitting. The faces on these flat beads are so small and indistinguishable that it is impossible to tell if they are meant to be men, women, children, or masks.

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