Glass mosaic inlay fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep purple, turquoise blue partially mixed with opaque yellow and appearing green, opaque white and yellow. Flat, with two straight edges forming a right-angled corner; underside tapering to corner. Mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of a single cane in a purple ground with a ring of white rods surrounding a green lattice design outlined in yellow and a fine purple circle around a central turquoise blue rod. Polished upper side; pitting and weathering of surface bubbles on upper side; dulling, pitting, and creamy iridescent weathering on underside, straight and one jagged edge; one broken edge unweathered.

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