Terracotta oil lamp

Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Broneer Type 27. Mold-made, with ring handle. Discus: in high relief, bull moving left and carrying on his back a figure wearing a knee-length tunic and a headdress, holding a stick-like object in left arm across shoulder and another indistinct object in raised right hand; a small, footed krater in field at left; a single filling hole at bottom; raised band around discus and two scrolled projections at sides. Undefined, slightly uneven base. Top half of handle missing, and one small hole on discus at top right.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.