Terracotta loutrophoros (ceremonial vase for water)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the body, obverse, prothesis (laying out of the deceased) with mourners Reverse, male mourners; subsidiary frieze, file of horsemen On the neck, obverse, mourning women Reverse, mourning women; subsidiary frieze, siren between panthers It is very unfortunate that this loutrophoros is so damaged and so incomplete. It was richly decorated with principal and subsidiary subjects on the obverse and reverse. The remaining figures are well drawn with much added white preserved. The women here clearly tear their hair, illustrating a traditional part of their lamentations.

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