Glass mosaic handle fragment

Glass mosaic handle fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Handle in deep honey brown, appearing black, and opaque white; body in translucent pale honey brown. Thick, straight strap handle tooled into three rounded ribs, with projecting roll at top, attached to neck. Mosaic pattern of irregular stripes in brown and white, appearing as streaks on interior. Polished interior of handle; pitting of surface bubbles on interior; dulling and iridescent weathering on sides and exterior of handle; thick creamy weathering on interior of body. The handle belongs to a type of marbled blown glass ewer (olpa), found principally in northern Italy.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.