Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Around vase, procession of figures to an altar Of the major regions in Southern Italy producing painted vases, only Campania had a significant black-figure output. As the present example indicates, the technique employs a minimum of incision, making it closer to silhouette than actual figure. While dependent on Attic models, a piece such as this one is distinct in the decoration that circles the vase rather than being divided by the handles into front and back.

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