Glass head flask

Glass head flask

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, with same color handle and base. Everted rim with cracked off vertical lip; broad funnel-shaped neck, splaying slightly at base; narrow horizontal shoulder; body molded into the shape of a head in the round, with vertical mold marks down sides of head in hair behind ears; below head sides curve in to round bottom; thick trail wound round bottom 3½ times to form splayed base ring; wishbone handle applied to lower half of neck in a large pad, drawn out and up, then tooled into a pinched thumb-rest with acute angle below, and drawn vertically down to back of head and trailed off down to base with decoration of twenty horizontal ribs. The head portrays a youth with long hair arranged in wavy locks at back, reaching to nape of the neck and behind the ears; fringe of straight locks on his forehead; the head has prominent ears, almond-shaped eyes with inset pupils, and a protruding, thick upper lip, pointed nose, and small chin. Intact, except for a small chips at proper right side of head and in base ring; slight encrustation and faint dulling. The head is that of a youth with the large almond-shaped eyes and neat, flowing locks that are typical of Late Roman portraiture.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.