Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Athena Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gigantomachy (battle of the gods and giants), with Hermes and Athena In Athens, vases of this type were closely connected with funerary rites because of the importance of oil in preparing the body for burial and as an offering at the grave. This battle scene between the Olympian gods and the earth-born giants is painted in a modification of the black-figure style that uses a thin coat of white clay as background.

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