Glass mosaic inlay fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thin inlay fragment. Translucent deep purple streaked with colorless, greyish blue, turquoise blue appearing green; opaque white and yellow. Flat with one straight edge; slightly uneven underside. Mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of three canes: one in a purple ground with a white circle and a central white rod; another in a purple ground around a rosette of five green rods outlined in yellow and a central white rod surrounded by a purple circle, and a third in a purple ground around a rosette of six blue rods outlined in white and a central yellow spiral surrounded by a purple circle. Polished upper side; pitting of surface bubbles on upper side; pitting and thick creamy weathering and brilliant iridescence on underside 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