Glass mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent honey brown, deep purple appearing black, and opaque white. Tall, outsplayed base ring, with convex curving side on interior and rounded bottom edge; irregular small circular indents on exterior. Ribbon mosaic pattern formed from lengths of one or more canes in a purple and brown ground with fine white threads, partially appearing yellow, in parallel lines, set between broad white bands. Polished exterior; pitting of surface bubbles and weathering in indents on exterior; creamy weathering and some iridescence on interior and jagged edges. This fragment is part of a flaring base ring, probably belonging to a deep ribbed bowl.

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