Glass mosaic box (pyxis) fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent streaky purple, turquoise blue, partially mixed with opaque yellow and appearing green, opaque white, yellow, and red. Vertical side to cylindrical body, curving in to flat bottom. Mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of two canes: one in a purple ground outlined in white and surrounding a circular cluster of green rods outlined in yellow; the other in a purple ground with a white circle and a central yellow dot surrounded by red. Polished exterior; slight pitting of surface bubbles on exterior; dulling and creamy 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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art