Terracotta oil lamp

Terracotta oil lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mold-made. Large central filling hole, surrounded by a raised band and a row of out-turned tongues; convex sloping shoulder decorated at sides and back with three raised rosettes; at front between filling hole and long, straight nozzle, a satyr head in high relief, and two projecting volutes at edge of sides; squat, carinated body. Raised, flat base. Intact, with some encrustation.


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.