Terracotta Hadra hydria (water jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This hydria was made by a skilled craftsman: it has a thin, delicate rim, which is concave underneath; a back handle fashioned with three crisp ridges; and an elaborately turned foot, articulated with three grooves and four glazed lines. The high level of potting in conjunction with the painted decoration, which combined incision with prodigious use of added white, must have made this an object of great elegance in antiquity.

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