Terracotta hydria (water jar)

Class of Hamburg 1917.477

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Women at fountain house On the shoulder, combat Among the many changes brought to the city of Athens by the ruler Peisistratos and his sons was an improved water system and new public fountains. During the latter part of the sixth century B.C., scenes of women at a fountain house became very popular on black-figure vases. Here women gather to chat and to fill their hydriai.

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