Glass mosaic carinated dish fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rim fragment. Translucent deep purple, turquoise blue, partially mixed with yellow and appearing green, opaque white, yellow, and brick red. Outsplayed, almost horizontal rim with rounded edge; carinated side, with two deep convex curves, the upper one narrow. Composite mosaic pattern formed from polygonal sections of two canes: one in a purple ground with a circle of white dots and a central white rod encircled by red; the second in a blue ground with a yellow spiral and a central white rod encircled by purple. Polished interior; pitting and creamy weathering of surface bubbles on interior; dulling, deep pitting, and iridescent weathering on exterior, edge of rim, and jagged side edges; bottom straight edge unweathered.

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