Glass jar with four handles

Glass jar with four handles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent manganese purple; handles in translucent pale green. Rim slightly outsplayed, with rounded vertical lip; below hollow folded flange; funnel-shaped neck; uneven, slightly pushed-in shoulder; body with convex side, tapering downwards to small, pushed-in bottom with small pontil mark; four handles applied in large pads to top of side, drawn up vertically, turned in at a right angle, then folded upwards over flange to top of rim. Part of rim and top of one handle missing, with weathered edges, but body complete; some bubbles and blowing striations; dulling, deep pitting, patches of weathering, and brilliant iridescence on exterior, whitish weathering covering much of interior.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass jar with four handlesGlass jar with four handlesGlass jar with four handlesGlass jar with four handlesGlass jar with four handles

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.