Terracotta pelike (wine jar)

Amazon Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Greeks fighting Amazons Reverse, maenad between two satyrs In many Attic vases of the fourth century B.C., the figural decoration and the surface of the vase are no longer in the perfect harmony that earlier vase-painters were able to achieve. The bodies seem almost three-dimensional, and the composition is confused apparently in an attempt to imitate large contemporary panel and wall paintings. The addition of much white, yellow, and gilding is typical of what is traditionally known as the "Kerch style" because many such vases have been found in princely tombs in the area of Kerch in the Crimea on the northern shore of the Black Sea.

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