Mosaic glass fragment

Mosaic glass fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent cobalt blue, deep purple appearing black, turquoise blue, and opaque white. Applied vertical coil rim, with slightly rounded top edge; almost straight side tapering slightly downward. Rim in purple with white spiral thread; body decorated with meandering-strip mosaic pattern formed from large sections of two canes: one in turquoise blue, and the other in purple stripes with central blue stripe flanked by white lines. Polished exterior, with pitting of surface bubbles and joins between canes; dulling, pitting, and patches of iridescent weathering on interior, and some iridescent weathering on edges.

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.