Mosaic glass inlay

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue ground; decoration in opaque white and yellow, partly translucent purple, and translucent blue. Thick, oblong plaque, cut from a mosaic composite bar, with uneven upper and lower faces, and vertical straight sides; design extends uniformly through the thickness of the plaque. Head of an owl, facing forward, surrounded by tiny white circles; white forehead and face with tiny scale pattern on cheeks; eyebrows, nose, and chin in blue and white stripes; pointed beak in white; eyes, nostril, and mouth in yellow with purple dots. Intact, but all surfaces ground and slight chips on edges; dulling and slight pitting.

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