Terracotta hydria (water jar)

APZ Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Three women within a naiskos (shrine) between youths and women. Under the handles, head of a woman A recurring question in ancient funerary representations is which figures are alive and which deceased. On this vase, the critical difference between the individuals inside and outside the naiskos is that the ladies inside are painted white. Should they be interpreted as statues, despite their lifelike actions? Or does the white signify a change in substance though not in form brought about by death?

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