Terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse and reverse, between eyes, mask of Dionysos and of a satyr During the last quarter of the sixth century B.C., the decoration of many drinking vessels consisted of themes relating to Dionysos, the god of wine. Here the main subject is a mask of Dionysos; a frequent alternative is the mask of a satyr. The popularity of the wine god in Archaic Attic art reflects initiatives of the ruling family, the Peisistratids, that concerned cults, festivals, and public performances involving Dionysos.

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