Glass medallion of winged Victory

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent cobalt blue, backed in cobalt blue with opaque white. Oval flat plaque, with major axis vertical; rounded edge, grozed at back. Decoration in relief: border around edge comprising indistinct wreath of upward facing leaves and central rosette at top; fine linear border to main panel depicting winged Victory (Victoria / Nike), turned slightly to left with head in profile to left, with hair tied back, wearing a chiton over proper right shoulder with high belt and pleats below, with proper left breast exposed, holding vertical wreath in outstretched proper right hand and a tall leafy frond in left extending upward over left shoulder, and body flanked to either side by outspread long, rounded wings. On back, undecorated layer of blue mixed with streaks of white. Broken, with lower half missing and chips in broken edge; dulling, slight pitting, faint iridescence, and patches of creamy brown weathering. The fragment may be part of a phalera, a decoration that was affixed to the soldier's breastplate.

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