Glass mosaic carinated bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Body fragment. Translucent deep purple, deep turquoise blue mixed with opaque yellow and appearing green, opaque white, yellow, and red. Part of rim (?), straight side, then slanting sharply downward below. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of three canes: one in a purple ground outlined in white and a circle of white dots around central white rod encircled in red; a second in a purple ground outlined in white containing yellow rods, and the third in a blue ground with a yellow spiral encircling a purple band around a central yellow rod. Polished interior; pitting of surface bubbles on interior; dulling and iridescent weathering on exterior 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