Mosaic glass inlay

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Opaque streaky red frame and opaque blue green ground; decoration in opaque white, yellow, and red, partly translucent purple appearing black and grey blue, and translucent blue. Thick, square or rectangular plaque, cut from a mosaic composite bar, with uneven front and back, and vertical straight sides, with one slightly rounded corner; design extends uniformly through the thickness of the plaque. Female head with white face and neck, outlined in grey blue; features delineated in blue, with red lips and purple mouth; face enclosed by headdress in purple, decorated with yellow stripes and red and white circles, with yellow flaps extending to neck and ending in white folds and red flaps. Broken, but one corner preserved; glossy surfaces to front and back; pinprick and larger bubbles; dulling, brownish weathering, and faint iridescence on preserved sides.

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