Glass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapes

Glass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green. Rim folded out, round, and in, and pressed into flaring mouth; cylindrical neck expanding downwards, with slight horizontal tooled indent around base; shoulder sloping down and out, with hollow projecting roll below; ovoid body; low cylindrical base, with concave bottom. Pontil scar at center of bottom. Body blown into a three-part mold of two vertical sections, extending from base to top of body, and a disk-shaped base section. On body, a pattern of stylized grapes comprising eleven interlocking rows of twenty-two unevenly-spaced hemispherical knobs, and at top two indistinct leaves opposite each other, centered between the mold seams; on bottom, three narrow raised concentric circles. Intact; many bubbles; patches of dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering. Bottles, jars, and handled jugs whose body is made in the shape of a stylized bunch of grapes have been found mainly in the Syro-Palestinian area. One bottle, for example, is known from a rock-cut tomb at Nazareth. But pieces are also known from Egypt, Carthage, and even Aksum in Ethiopia.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapesGlass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapesGlass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapesGlass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapesGlass bottle shaped like a bunch of grapes

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.