Glass mosaic bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Semi-opaque deep purple, appearing black, opaque white, opaque yellow, and opaque red; color(s) of base ring uncertain, but including trails of yellow and blue, appearing opaque green. Outsplayed rim with uneven rounded lip; carinated side, with two convex curves, the upper being shallow and the lower deep; slightly convex bottom within applied outsplayed base ring with rounded edge. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of a single cane in a purple ground outlined in white, each with a ring of yellow rods around concentric circles in yellow and red and a central white dot. Broken and repaired, but complete; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering.

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