Glass mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Deep translucent purple, appearing brown, light honey yellow, blue, and opaque white. Convex side. Marbled mosaic pattern in a yellow ground with parallel stripes and swirls in purple interspersed with streaks in white and blue. Some pinprick bubbles; exterior polished, with pitting of surface bubbles; dulling, creamy weathering, and iridescence on interior 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