Glass flask

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent pale green; trails and pontil pad in translucent turquoise blue. Slightly thickened, rounded, vertical rim; slender funnel-shaped neck; elongated piriform body; splayed, tubular foot, made by folding; small, convex bottom with central hollow containing pontil pad; four handles applied as long vertical trails, evenly spaced around body, drawn up to top of body, then tooled out into three vertical loops, and trailed off on neck towards rim. On neck, single trail applied as a round pad below rim and wound round in an irregular spiral ten times; handles applied over spiral trail, with long trails decorated with tooled notches. Intact; few bubbles; dulling, soil encrusted root marks covering body, and patches of iridescent weathering on handles.

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