Terracotta lebes gamikos (round-bottomed bowl with handles and stand used in weddings)

Washing Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bride with attendants Scenes of brides such as this are basically variants of those showing women in their domestic interiors. The nuptial representations are distinguished by objects that are specific to weddings. In this scene, the loutrophoros carried by the woman at left is special. Loutrophoroi contained water for the nuptial bath; they were also used as grave-markers for women who died unmarried.

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