Glass mosaic fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thick-walled body fragment. Translucent blue, deep purple (?) appearing black, opaque white, yellow, and red. Outsplayed curving side, then turned sharply downward. Mosaic pattern formed from tiny polygonal sections of three canes all in a blue ground: one with a purple rosette with white radiating spokes and two circles in white and red around a central yellow rod; another with a purple rosette outlined in white and two circles in yellow and red around a central white rod, and a third with a purple circle outlined in white and filled with a ring of yellow dots and two circles in white and red around a central yellow rod. Polished interior; pitting and slight weathering of surface bubbles and scratches on interior; dulling and iridescent weathering on exterior 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