Terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

Lykomedes Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Within the mouth, ships and dolphins On the body, obverse, the struggle between Herakles and Apollo for the Delphic tripod; reverse, onlookers Representations of Herakles' attempt to seize the tripod from the oracle of Apollo at Delphi were popular in Attic vase-painting from the end of the sixth century B.C. to the mid-fifth. In addition to featuring the local hero, Herakles, they afforded artists the opportunity to depict two male figures in motion. This challenge particularly interested practitioners of the newly introduced red-figure technique, but it also spurred black-figure artists who wished to remain up-to-date.

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