Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Loeschcke Type 4 (Vessberg Type 10). Mold-made. Large body. Discus: Bird with long legs perched on branch (?), facing left but with head turned back to right, and proper right wing raised; a single filling hole at right; band of regular lines and grooves around edge; plain, narrow, sloping shoulder. Squat volutes flanking large, slightly pointed nozzle, with large wick hole. Incised base ring, and slightly raised flat base. Intact.

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