Glass mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thin-walled rim fragment. Translucent purple, cobalt blue, turquoise blue partially appearing green, opaque white and yellow. Vertical, rounded rim; shallow convex curving side, tapering downward. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of three canes: one in a purple ground with a white circle and a central yellow rod surrounded by a yellow circle; another in a blue ground with concentric white circles and a central white rod, and the third in a turquoise blue ground with yellow concentric circles and a central white rod surrounded by purple. Polished exterior; pitting and weathering of surface bubbles on exterior; deep pitting and iridescent weathering on interior and jagged edges, dulling on rim.

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