Terracotta askos (flask with a spout and handle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The guttus and askos are flasks for liquids, often probably oil. In Southern Italy, they may assume complex figural forms. These examples show Black African youths in unguarded moments. The vertical spout of the guttus has been turned into the neck of an amphora against which the boy leans dozing. The sack-like askos is transformed into a youth who subdues a duck. Rogers Fund, 1941 (41.162.45)

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