
Glass mosaic fragment
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Base ring fragment, probably from a deep, footed ribbed bowl. Translucent blue, turquoise blue layered with opaque yellow and appearing green, opaque yellow and white, and colorless Straight, conical side with rounded bottom edge. Ribbon mosaic pattern formed from stripes in green, yellow layered with colorless, blue, and white in parallel lines. Pinprick bubbles; polished exterior and bottom edge; pitting of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling and faint creamy iridescent weathering on interior 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.