Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

Exekias

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Apollo between Hermes and goddess Reverse, Memnon between his Ethiopian squires In the Trojan War, Memnon, the son of Tithonos and Eos, the goddess of the dawn, led a contingent of Ethiopians allied with the Trojans. He was killed by Achilles in a duel watched by their mothers. The present condition of the vase provides insight into the painter's working method. Memnon's shield was drawn with a compass—the circles are evident—and it would have been painted in added white directly onto the clay. Without the white, we can see the cursory sketch that the artist drew for the figure's torso.

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