Terracotta Nolan neck-amphora (jar)

Group of the Floral Nolans

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the shoulder, palmette-lotos ornament The composition and execution of the nonfigural types of decoration on a vase are as important as the treatment of figural subjects. The stylistic ambient of the Berlin Painter included artists who specialized in vases decorated only with foliate and geometric motifs. A work such as this one demonstrates how effectively a band of florals adds an organic quality to the architectonic structure of the shape.

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