Glass mosaic fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thin-walled body fragment. Translucent purple, opaque white, yellow, and red. Slightly convex curving side; two almost straight edges at right angle to each other. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of two canes, both in a purple ground: one with a white circle around a ring of red rods and a central white rod, and the other with a white circle around a ring of white rods and a central yellow rod. One corner broken off and unweathered; polished exterior; pitting and weathering of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling and iridescent weathering on interior and edges. Possibly cut down into a triangle in antiquity.

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