Glass mosaic dish fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent cobalt blue, opaque white, and deep purple appearing black. Outsplayed, rounded rim and concave curving neck. Marbled mosaic pattern in blue ground with irregular pattern of white and purple lines and streaks. Polished interior; pitting of surface bubbles on interior; dulling and iridescent weathering on exterior and edges. The dish was probably very large since its estimated rim diameter is 11 13/16 in. (30 cm).

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