Glass mosaic dish fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent deep purple appearing black, deep turquoise blue green, opaque white and yellow. Vertical rim with rounded but tapering edge; short, convex curving side, turned in sharply toward bottom. Mosaic pattern formed from rows of a single cane in a blue green ground with numerous, fine radiating white spokes around a small yellow circle and a central purple rod; a purple cane wound spirally with a thick white thread is attached as a rim. Polished exterior; pitting and slight weathering of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling, pitting, and creamy brown weathering on interior, outer edge of 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