Glass mosaic bowl fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent deep purple appearing black, cobalt blue, opaque white, yellow, and brick red. Outsplayed, horizontal rim with rounded edge; convex curving side. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of four canes: one in a purple ground with a yellow circle and a central yellow rod; another in a purple ground with a white circle and a central white rod; a third in a purple ground with an irregular scatter of white dots and a central white rod surrounded by a red circle, and the fourth in a blue ground with a white circle and a central white rod. Polished interior; pitting and weathering of surface bubbles on interior; deep pitting, iridescence, and creamy weathering on exterior, outer edge of rim, 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