Terracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's head

Terracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vases in the form of a Black African's head were popular during the first half of the fifth century BCE. Black Africans were familiar to Greeks from the time of Homer. In his Iliad, for instance, Memnon, the son of Eos (the goddess of dawn), was king of the Ethiopians and a prominent ally of the Trojans. In such vases, the features conveyed exoticism and permitted the juxtaposition of lustrous black glaze with textured hair.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's headTerracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's headTerracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's headTerracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's headTerracotta oinochoe (jug) in the form of a Black African's head

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.