Glass alabastron (perfume bottle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with handles in same color; trails in opaque white and opaque yellow. Slightly concave horizontal rim-disk, formed as a coil, with rough edge to mouth; no perceptible neck or shoulder; slightly convex side to cylindrical body, tapering upwards; rounded bottom, with central point; two vertical ring handles with knobbed tails, applied over trail decoration. White trail attached at neck under rim-disk, wound down unevenly, tooled into an irregular close-set zigzag pattern, with deep vertical ribs; four separate yellow trails added over white at intervals down sides. Broken and repaired, with some holes, chips, and cracks, especially on lower body; slight dulling, pitting, and 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