Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vessberg Type 12. Mold-made, with ring handle below large upright triangular attachment. Deeply concave discus with small, central filling hole, surrounded by two concentric raised lines that form the base for a rosette pattern of twenty-one rounded petals. Large volutes flanking nozzle; a bud design in relief between them at front behind the wick hole. On attachment, an acanthus palmette. Raised base ring, and on base three raised concentric circles and a central raised knob. Intact. Vitreous sheen to slip. Probably made in Italy, although local imitations of such lamps with a large handle ornament were also produced in Cyprus.

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