Glass mosaic inlay fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent deep turquoise blue and opaque white, partially mixed together and appearing as green and pale yellow. Flat, roughly oval plaque, tapering to one edge that is rounded on underside. Marbled mosaic pattern in green ground with multiple white rods. Chipped edges; polished upper side; pitting of surface bubbles; dulling and creamy weathering on underside and most of edges. The colors and pattern on this flat plaque resemble those of colored marble such as lapis lacedaimonius, a green speckled marble found near Sparta in Greece.

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