Terracotta amphora (jar)

Amasis Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse and reverse, warrior putting on armor Although both sides of this amphora show the same subject, the Amasis Painter has introduced subtle variations in the sequence of action and in detail. On one side, a warrior holds a greave (shin guard); on the other side, he adjusts it on his leg. A nude youth with a spear and a wreath is replaced in the opposite scene by a woman with a spear and an aryballos (oil flask). This is an interesting conflation of two important themes because both the wreath and the oil flask are usually associated with athletes, not warriors. The male figures have the same long hair and proud stance as contemporary marble statues and reliefs of kouroi (youths) and embody the same ideal of young manhood.

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