Terracotta two-handled vase

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This vase is a variant of the funnel-jar with relief plaques 06.1021.248. The underlying shape is comparable. The decoration here is even more sculptural, with the two handles in the form of Erotes; plaster copies replace the originals, which are lost. The magnificently tactile Medusa on the front of the body may well fulfill her time-honored function of guardian and averter of evil. A statuette once stood on the ledge between her wings. Four such vases were in the burial. This one belongs with the same group as the loutrophoroi 06.1021.245 and 06.1021.249; the pyxis 06.1021.253a, b; and the funnel-jar 06.1021.248a, b.

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