Glass striped mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Body fragment (of shallow bowl?). Translucent blue, deep purple appearing almost black, opaque white and yellow, and colorless. Slightly concave bottom, then turned up at angle as straight side. Striped quadripartite pattern formed from lengths of different canes laid at right angles, comprising a length of purple with a central white stripe, a blue network cane wound spirally with a white thread, a length of yellow and colorless, a polygonal cane in a blue ground with a white square surrounding a central white rod, and another cane in a blue ground dotted with white rods. Polished interior; pitting of surface bubbles on interior; 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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art