Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Sabouroff Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Prothesis (laying out of the dead) The prothesis, a central part of funerary ritual, is represented in the Metropolitan Museum's collection as early as the mid-eighth century B.C. The essential elements—the deceased laid out on a bier, surrounded by members of the household and mourners—remained unchanged over centuries. In this depiction, there is obvious interest in differentiating the mourners and exploiting the contrast between the light background and the surfaces of opaque color.

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