Terracotta lebes gamikos (jar) and lid

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The decorative motifs on this lebes gamikos are similar to those painted on the so-called Hadra hydriai, examples of which are on display in this case. Like the hydriai, lebetes gamikoi have also been discovered in Alexandrian cemetaries, in particular the necropolis at Sciatbi, which has yielded several vases of this shape, presently in the collection of the Alexandria Museum.

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