Glass mosaic carinated bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Body fragment. Translucent honey brown, purple, and light blue, opaque white and yellow. Part of bottom and side curving unevenly upward; one straight edge running across bottom and up side. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of three canes: one in a brown ground with a white spiral and central white rod; a second in a purple ground with a white circle around a tiny central yellow spiral, and the third in a purple ground with a white spiral around a tiny central yellow spiral; trace of a fourth cane in a blue ground with a white spiral. Polished exterior; pitting and weathering of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling and iridescent weathering on interior and 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