Terracotta jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In vase-painting of mainland Greece, floral and foliate ornament is always contained and precise. This jug and 74.51.509 are noteworthy for the almost tropical lushness that envelops the body of the vase and the four figures on it. An elaborate central lotus stalk is flanked by two birds. Behind them, a winged stag grazes on the left, a winged doe turns as she walks away on the right. The stylistic contrast to the hard-edged depictions of birds and fish is noteworthy. It is not clear whether the reason is purely artistic or in some way iconographic.

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