
Glass striped mosaic bowl fragment
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rim fragment of thin-walled bowl. Translucent honey brown, blue, purple appearing opaque brick red, and opaque white. Applied vertical coil rim, with rounded top edge; straight side slanting downward. Rim in blue with white spiral thread; body decorated with mosaic pattern formed from bands slanting from top left to bottom right in combinations of brown, blue with white spiral thread, brown with white splashes, purple, and white. Pinprick bubbles; exterior polished, with pitting of surface bubbles; dulling and creamy weathering on interior and some iridescent weathering on 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.