Glass mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent honey brown, blue, opaque white, yellow, and brick red. Vertical, squared rim; slightly convex curving side. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections and short lengths of two canes: one cane consists of a brown ground with white rods around a central blue rod outlined in white; the other in red with stripes in blue; a blue network cane wound spirally with a single white thread is attached as a rim. Polished exterior; pitting of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling and creamy weathering on interior, rim, and jagged edges.

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