Glass ribbon mosaic base fragment

Glass ribbon mosaic base fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Applied base ring fragment, probably from a deep, footed ribbed bowl. Translucent cobalt blue, honey yellow, and opaque white. Outsplayed, thick base ring, curving up and inward, with rounded edge; bottom of body flaring out and upward. Ribbon mosaic pattern formed from a length of a single cane in a blue ground with a central yellow stripe flanked by two white bands; on body, traces of a polygonal section of a cane in a yellow ground with white and blue circles around a central white rod, and a tiny part of a second cane in a blue ground. One internal crack on interior; polished interior; pitting of surface bubbles on interior; dulling, pitting and creamy iridescent weathering on exterior, edge of base ring, and some jagged edges; one jagged edge unweathered.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glass ribbon mosaic base fragmentGlass ribbon mosaic base fragmentGlass ribbon mosaic base fragmentGlass ribbon mosaic base fragmentGlass ribbon mosaic base fragment

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.