Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mold-made, with ring handle. Shallow discus: vertical scene with bird on leafy branch, facing right; a single, small filling hole between bird's neck and branch. Horizontal shoulder: inner band of impressed dots and herring bone wreath. Incised base ring, and uneven, pushed-in base. Intact. The hole in the handle has been outlined on both side but not made.

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