Glass mosaic inlay fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep purple and opaque yellow. Flat, rectangular panel, with one chipped, straight edge. Marbled mosaic pattern in a purple ground with many yellow threads and swirls. Chipped on edges of upper side; polished upper side; pitting of surface bubbles and weathering in chips on upper side; dulling and pitting on underside, straight edge, and part of opposite edge; other edges unweathered.

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