Glass mosaic ribbed bowl fragment

Glass mosaic ribbed bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent deep honey brown, cobalt blue, and opaque white. Outsplayed rim with thick, rounded edge; straight side tapering downward; irregular tooling indents on neck between rim and rib on body. Spiral mosaic pattern formed from sections of a single cane in brown ground with white and blue threads in parallel horizontal lines; on exterior, one vertical rib with flattened top and rounded outer edge. Polished interior; pitting of surface bubbles and cracks on interior; dulling, faint weathering, and small patches of limy encrustation on exterior; some dulling on jagged edges.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass mosaic ribbed bowl fragmentGlass mosaic ribbed bowl fragmentGlass mosaic ribbed bowl fragmentGlass mosaic ribbed bowl fragmentGlass mosaic ribbed bowl fragment

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.