Terracotta saucer-shaped lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wheel-made with edge pinched in to form a narrow wick rest; broad rim with outer rounded lip; open body slanting down to front, with a central tubular projection with flaring mouth; flaring base ring with rough, irregular interior surface; concave, rough base, with hole pierced through from tubular projection, with jagged edge. Complete, but some ships to edge at front. The base made with an uneven, hand-worked coil.

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