Glass mosaic face bead

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Uncertain color, appearing black, and opaque white; details in opaque white and red, and translucent blue and deep purple, appearing black. Spherical with vertical large hole. Around center of bead, four mosaic sections arranged horizontally in a band, each showing the same female face framed by black and white striped hair, with almond-shaped eyes, eyebrows, nose, and slit mouth with red lips; the faces are enclosed in a narrow white circle set on a blue ground. Intact; slight pitting, 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