Terracotta jug

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A horse without any harness moves to the right. On his back stands a small figure wearing a garment around his lower body. Representations of horses, horsemen, carts, and chariots are quite common in Cypriot Archaic art, indicating that these were familiar subjects observed firsthand. Unusual as it may seem, the figure on the animal's back recalls genies, winged and wingless, who are ultimately of eastern origin and appear in various contexts in the Greek world. This individual may have counterparts in an Attic representation of the stables of Poseidon by the Amasis Painter (Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt Gallery, 1989.281.62).

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