
Glass mosaic dish fragment
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rim fragemnt. Translucent turquoise blue, opaque white and yellow. Outsplayed rim and broad concave curving neck. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of two canes: one in a blue ground with a white spiral; the second in a blue ground with a yellow spiral; a blue network cane wound with a white thread is attached as a rim. Part of rim chipped and missing; interior deeply ground and polished, with pitting of surface bubbles and thread on rim completely removed; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering on exterior and jagged 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.