Terracotta cinerary urn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The frieze depicts one of the most popular subjects on Etruscan terracotta urns, a man using a plow as a weapon. Some scholars suggest that he is the Greek hero Echetlos, a rustic who came to the aid of the Athenians and killed many Persians, wielding his plow against them at the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. However, it has never been explained satisfactorily why such an obscure Greek legend was so popular in Etruria. It is possible that the scene represents an Etruscan legend or event of unknown specific meaning. The type was produced extensively in Chiusi. As told by the inscription, AULE : PETRUNI : ATH : CUTNALISA, this is the cinerary urn of Aulus Petronius, son of Arnth Cutnalisa.

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