Glass mosaic ribbed bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent purple, cobalt blue, and light turquoise blue, opaque white, and colorless. Outsplayed, rounded rim; convex curving side. Mosaic pattern formed from large polygonal sections of two or more canes; one in a purple ground with a circle of white rods around a central pattern of small squares in turquoise blue outlined in white, and the other in a blue ground with a circle of white rods around a central square in purple with white dots, and irregular patches in colorless with white rods; on exterior, two widely spaced, vertical ribs, with flattened tops. Polished interior; pitting of surface bubbles on interior; dulling and creamy iridescent weathering on exterior, rim, and jagged edges. Part of the rim and side of a deep, footed ribbed bowl with broad flaring rim.

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