Glass mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent deep purple, light blue appearing green, opaque white, yellow, and brick red. Vertical rim with rounded inner edge; side with thicker, convex collar below rim on interior, tapering downward. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of three canes: one in a purple ground with a concentric white circle and a central white rod surrounded by blue and yellow circles; another in a purple ground with an irregular scatter of red dots and a central white rod surrounded by blue and yellow circles, and the third in a blue ground with radiating yellow spokes around a central white rod. Polished exterior; pitting of surface bubbles on exterior; deep pitting and creamy iridescent weathering on interior, rim, 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