Glass mosaic body fragment

Unknown

late 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE · Glass · Greek and Roman Art

Translucent turquoise blue and purple, opaque white and yellow, and colorless. Almost flat, with two straight, ground edges. Mosaic pattern formed from serpentine lengths of canes in colorless, blue, purple, and yellow, all outlined in white. Polished on one side and edges; other side with pitting and iridescent weathering. Possibly an inlay, but the fragment may be from the flat bottom of a vessel. The pattern is unusual and resembles most closely that found on gold-band mosaic glass.

Artist

Unknown

Date

late 1st century BCE–early 1st century CE

Medium

Glass

Culture

Roman

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917