Terracotta stamnos (jar)

Menelaos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse and reverse, maenads making music Wine, women, and song are integrated here into an exceptionally rhythmical composition. The elongated women in fluidly pleated garments move slowly forward on the obverse and stand still on the reverse. Their instruments, drinking cups, torches, and thyrsoi (fennel stalks) introduce variety into a composition that might otherwise appear stiff. The quality of the music is conveyed more by the movement of the figures than by facial expressions.

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