Gold amphoriskos (oil flask) with inlaid garnets

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Circle of twisted wire soldered onto top of mouth above everted rim; cylindrical neck; sloping rounded shoulder; conical body with pointed bottom. Two handles, made from two separate sheets of folded metal, square in section, joined at a right angle; lower section attached to shoulder and rising vertically; upper section attached horizontally to neck; ends of handles encircled by beaded wire; on neck two inverted tear-shaped red garnet stones set in plain bezels encircled with beaded wire; at base of neck, two rows of twisted wire; on shoulder below handles, to small round garnet stones, also in a plain setting encircled with beaded wire; below these settings at the top of the conical body are two more rows of twisted wire but smaller than those at the base of the neck; near top of body is a row of beaten out bosses in an irregular line; the top of the pointed bottom is concealed beneath a cluster of sixteen granules with a central stud at the apex.

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