Terracotta askos (flask with a handle over the top)

Mignot Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The askos itself is in the form of a sea creature, Scylla, its snake-like body forming the handle on top. On the body is a hound coursing a hare, with the head of a woman above. On the front of the vase is a head of Nike; on the back, a palmette. Scylla askoi are late Apulian creations most notable for the treatment of the shape and the apparently unrelated decoration.

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